5/6/2014
Veterans Arrested for Political Views - Lilia Chakarian
Over 15 veterans gathered in front of Court of General Jurisdiction at Arabkir and Kanaker area where the trial of Volodya Avetisyan will soon start.
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5/25/2012
In Annual Rights Report, U.S. Warns Of 'Instability' Following Arab Spring
In a new report, the U.S. State Department calls last year’s uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa “inspirational."
The report says citizens of Armenia live under significant limitations on their right to change their government, a lack of free speech and press, and a government-influenced judicial system. The report found that the Republican Party of Armenia, led by President Serzh Sarksian, continues to dominate the political system. It said Armenian authorities arrested and detained criminal suspects without reasonable suspicion, and often detained individuals because of their opposition political affiliations or activities.
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3/29/2012
Political Persecution - Lilia Chakarian
Sukiasyan announced today that he was nominated by the majoritarian system in constituency No. 10 as a councilmember, but by the order of the totalitarian power, the police, who initially gave him the paperwork that Sukiasyan had been living in Armenia for the past 5 years, gave a second paper where the police are denying him of becoming a delegate because during the past 5 years, he was absent from the country for 10 months. Absurdity CONTINUES…
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2/13/2012
Dead Democracy
Rampant and blatant voting discrepancies in Armenia’s parliament prompted Armenian Revolutionary Federation bloc president Vahan Hovannesian to call the ruling party’s promise of democratic elections a “lie.”
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2/3/2012
Prominent Journalist Arrested
A prominent journalist working for Armenia’s leading pro-opposition newspaper was arrested on Friday on charges of injuring another man which his colleagues rejected as baseless and politically motivated.
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12/21/2011
Opposition Bloc Warns Of Post-Election ‘Revolution’
Armenia’s political leadership should refrain from rigging next year’s parliamentary elections or face an anti-government “revolution,” a top representative of the main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) said on Wednesday.
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12/6/2011
Armenian Opposition Slams Choice Of New Parliament Speaker
YEREVAN -- The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) has condemned the upcoming election of Samvel Nikoyan as the new speaker of Armenia's parliament, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.
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10/28/2011
Ter-Petrosian Changes Focus To 2012 Elections
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) may well fail to force President Serzh Sarkisian to resign soon and should therefore start preparing for regular parliamentary elections due in May next year, the opposition bloc’s top leader, Levon Ter-Petrosian, said on Friday.
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10/21/2011
Armenian Opposition Condemns Activist's Arrest
The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) has demanded the immediate release of one of its activists arrested after a scuffle with police.
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9/9/2011
Armenia protesters threaten political unrest
Yerevan. Around 6,000 protesters rallied in the Armenian capital on Friday, calling for early elections in the ex-Soviet state and threatening political unrest if their demands are not met.
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3/10/2011
OSCE Watchdog Insists On More Human Rights Safeguards In Armenia
A senior official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe urged the Armenian authorities on Thursday to add more human rights safeguards to national legislation on the due process of law.
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2/18/2011
Oskanian Fears ‘Absolute Rule’ In Armenia
In a written statement, Oskanian expressed serious concern about key points of a joint declaration issued by Armenia’s three governing parties on Thursday.
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11/11/2010
Release Pashinyan: Editors in Armenia issue joint call over their jailed colleague
Editors of Armenian newspapers say they will to continue to demand the release from prison of Nikol Pashinyan, an ultra-oppositionist activist and protest leader who has also been editor of Haykakan Zhamanak daily. Pashinyan is currently serving a seven-year prison term for his role in the 2008 post-election clashes.
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10/18/2010
Efforts for Jailed Opposition Members’ Release
The leader of a major Armenian opposition party has warned the authorities that they will seek a broader international support in achieving the release of a dozen or so members of their alliance who, the opposition claims, remain jailed for their political views.
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10/6/2010
PACE delegate: “There are 13 political prisoners in Armenia”
On October 6, member of the Armenian delegation PACE, to Heritage Party MP Zaruhi Postanjyan delivered a speech in the PACE Monitoring Committee
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9/30/2010
ANC: “Serzh Sargsyan will be held responsible”
As expected, the revelation and prevention of the regime's latest bandit plans against political prisoner, editor-in-chief of "Armenian Times" newspaper and representative of the Armenian National Congress's central office Nikol Pashinyan have raised public concern in Armenian civil society and the presses.
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9/10/2010
Protests help waken public consciousness
As every Friday, the relatives and wives of the Armenian political prisoners today gathered outside the office of the RA Prosecutor General vociferating "Freedom to political prisoners," "Free and independent Armenia."
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9/3/2010
Demand: “Armenia must have no political prisoner”
It is already two years the relatives of the Armenian political prisoners gather outside the office of the RA Prosecutor General
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7/30/2010
Armenian Oppositionist Completes Jail Term
An Armenian opposition activist was set free on Thursday after completing a controversial prison sentence stemming from Armenia’s 2008 presidential race.
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6/19/2010
UN Expert Concerned About Restraints on Freedom of Assembly in Armenia
Armenian authorities must take steps to protect human rights defenders, who are often physically attacked, harassed or stigmatized as they try to carry out their work in the Caucasus nation, an independent United Nations expert said on June 18.
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5/18/2010
Who is next?
The death of Hamlet Stepanyan, convicted in the case of October 27, is the most recent in a number of others deaths of individuals who were in some way or another connected with that case.
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5/5/2010
RA Criminal Court of Appeals Dismissed the Appeal
By its decision of April 30, the RA Criminal Court of Appeals refused to take into consideration, and review, appeals made by Nikol Pashinyan’s attorneys as well as those by the Prosecutor’s office.
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4/30/2010
Armenian Police In Rare Apology Over Torture
In an unprecedented public apology, the chief of Armenia’s police service admitted on Friday misleading the nation about the recent scandalous death of a young man in police custody.
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12/26/2009
Pashinyan's verdict to be reached on January 19
The audience was full and the atmosphere was tense at the court before the start of editor-in-chief of "Haykakan Zhamanak" Nikol Pashinyan's trial today.
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11/30/2009
Jirayr Sefilyan – Levon Ter-Petrosyan Has Strayed from the Principles of the Pan-National Movement; Not Us
How would you describe the current state of domestic politics in Armenia?
The political field in our country today is worse off than ever. The question remains if a political field even exists given that the despotic regime in power has done everything to prevent the formation of a political field as classically understood.
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3/15/2009
Ter-Petrosyan – Yerevan mayor? Clever move by Armenian opposition, and good news for democracy in Armenia
Armenia’s first president and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan will head the list of opposition Armenian National Congress candidates in Yerevan municipal election (= Yerevan mayor election). No. 2 in the list is Stepan Demirchyan. (I do not know if Ter-Petrosyan would step down after winning the election, to make Demirchyan a mayor, but this is not important right now) They will now continue formal consultations with the parliamentary opposition Heritage party for joint participation in election. I do hope that cool heads in the opposition (parliamentary + extra-parliamentary) will prevail to contest the election united.
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10/16/2008
Fugitive Oppositionist Sees No Alternative To ‘Revolution’
A fugitive opposition figure who played a key role in the massive post-election protests in Yerevan insisted Thursday that democratic “revolution” is the only way to effect change in Armenia and that President Serzh Sarkisian has done nothing to prove the opposite.
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10/9/2008
French-Armenian Activist ‘Facing Deportation From Armenia’
A French citizen of Armenian descent who actively participated in this year’s post-election rallies in Yerevan is facing deportation from Armenia, it was claimed on Thursday.
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9/8/2008
Armenia (latest news): “Mook” the speaker; local elections marred by violence
1. ‘Not fit for purpose’ – this was the judgment by ruling Republican party for current speaker of Armenian parliament Tigran Torosyan. A judgment which was expected as soon as it became known that the head of presidential administration Hovik Abrahamyan decided to run for a vacant position of deputy. This decision paves the way for him to become a speaker of Armenian parliament (he has just been released of duties as head of presidential administration).
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6/5/2008
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s Supporters Apply to CEC to Annul Serzh Sargsyan’s Registration
Interesting development, although hardly anything will come out of this. At any rate, as ArmInfo reports, Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters have applied to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia to annul presidential candidate, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s registration. During his meeting with journalists at Hayatsk club, on Tuesday, the Press-secretary of the Armenian ex-president’s campaign headquarters Arman Musinyan has also told the journalists, that the means being spent on the campaign by the candidate from power aren’t evidently from Sargsyan’s election campaign fund. If the CEC fails to annul Sargsyan’s registration within 3 days, the oppositionists will apply to court “to acknowledge the inactivity” of the CEC. He added that numerous facts of violations of electoral legislation have already been presented to international observers.
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6/4/2008
Justification for the Sake of the Nation
The cause of the home political crisis in Armenia is that the society is unable to shape a legitimate government, and this government is shaped independently from the society and acts on internal arrangements rather than the law. Manvel Sargsyan, expert of the Armenian Center of National and International Studies, spoke about this in a discussion on June 3. According to him, being unable to fulfill its right to establish a Constitutional government and a Constitutional order of rule, the society has actually appeared outside the ongoing process and has become a body which has duties and has ceded its rights to the privileged class.
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4/30/2008
“WORKING GROUP WILL HARDLY SOLVE THE PROBLEM”
On April 17 the Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution on Armenia according to which Armenia’s leaderships are to release those detained on political motivations...
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3/13/2008
Violence following the elections in Armenia
In the wake of the presidential elections in Armenia on 19 February, a police crackdown against opposition supporters who were peacefully contesting the results left eight dead and dozens injured. A state of emergency was declared on 1 March and media freedom has been restricted. Parliament's resolution, adopted by 60 votes to 1 with 2 abstentions, deplores the loss of life, urges all parties to act responsibly and calls on the authorities to investigate the violence and take other measures.
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3/11/2008
US sharply condemns Armenian government crackdown on opposition
WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior U.S. official who recently returned from Armenia sharply condemned a government crackdown on protests following last month's presidential election.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza also raised concern about the recent arrests of government opponents close to former president Levon Ter-Petrosian.
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3/2/2008
Armenia: Civilians Die as Police Suppress Demonstrations and Riots
The Armenian government should launch a prompt and independent investigation into the use of lethal force by security forces to quell demonstrations and rioting overnight on March 1, 2008, Human Rights Watch said today. The violence occurred after a 20-day state of emergency was declared by President Robert Kocharian in response to an alleged threat to public order posed by opposition demonstrators.
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3/2/2008
Deadly post-election protests in Armenia concern UN human rights chief
The United Nations human rights chief today voiced deep concern at reports that at least eight people have been killed and many others injured during demonstrations in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where the results of recent presidential elections have been disputed.
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2/14/2008
Armenian Oppositionists ‘Tortured In Jail’
The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights on Friday called for an independent investigation into Armenia’s deadly post-election unrest and said opposition supporters arrested by the authorities in recent weeks have been ill-treated in custody.
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