BLOODY SATURDAY: A BREAKDOWN OF THE DAY THAT BROKE A NATION

The cloak of darkness and repression that fell on Yerevan late on March 1 began as a beaming promise to voters under drizzly October skies. Armenia’s opposition, silenced in 2003 by a show of political might, and in 2004 by physical force, once again found its voice with the return to politics of the country’s first elected president Levon Ter-Petrosyan.On that day a crowd of 10,000 or more filled Liberty Square to hear the ex-president’s first public address since he resigned his presidency in February, 1998. For the crowd that would grow consistently over the next four months, the return of “LTP” signaled hope for a release from the yoke of oppression that many felt ever tighten in 10 years of President Robert Kocharyan’s regime. Many too seemed wiling to gamble that Ter-Petrosyan would not resume his old habits of oppression seen during his presidency years before.
Plenty were ready to hope.
But hope was delivered on the rhetoric of hate, from October 26 through Election Day, February 19, and on till the bloody first day of spring. Ter-Petrosyan, while failing to convincingly outline his plan for the next five years, relied instead on emotional rhetoric such as calling the current administration a regime that had caused “the moral deterioration of Armenia”. On his return to public life, the former head of state coined “gang-ocracy”, to describe what he saw as a Kocharyan-topped pyramid of evil.
Ter-Petrosyan’s popularity continued to grow even after the disputed election – which he claimed he won with a spectacular 65 percent of the vote. On a day planned by president-elect Serzh Sargsyan to illustrate his legitimacy with a grand assembly in Republic Square, busloads of non-Yerevanstsis forced to attend his rally deserted Sargsyan’s speech to listen instead to Ter-Petrosyan. It was a show of defiance that surely must have registered concern for the president elect and was a mighty endorsement of Ter-Petrosyan, coming a week after Sargsyan had seized the election on a day fraught with fraud and violence.
The litany of Election Day wrongdoing seemed to bolster Ter-Petrosyan’s claims of Sargsyan being nothing more than a gangster with too much power. All across Armenia members of Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia were accused of violations that ranged from ballot stuffing to threats of rape.
Sargsyan, though, was emboldened in his claim of 52.8 percent of the vote, by support of international bodies – primary among them the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – who, to the bewilderment of even their own monitors, approved the outcome. By March 2 it became apparent the internationals had regretted their endorsements.
Daily protests by a surprisingly energized opposition followed February 19, climaxing on February 26 when Ter-Petrosyan supporters clearly outnumbered what Sargsyan and his backers could muster, though Ter-Petrosyan’s Central Election Commission official vote tally was less than half (21 percent). These were not crowds driven into the streets so much as a rally of approval for Ter-Petrosyan, but by disenchantment at having their ballots reduced to meaningless bundles wrapped in Sargsyan votes.
The messages of their thunderous chants revealed a shifting makeup of those who wanted institutional change more than a change of personality; mixed into the calls of “Lev-on, Lev-on” passionate calls of “Azatutyun” (Freedom) came in telling frequency.
President Robert Kocharyan had seen mass public dissent on another occasion, when he held onto his power in 2003 against allegations of wrongdoing. For several days followers of candidate Stepan Demirchyan had then protested before succumbing to atrophy and a lack of conviction.
But this season was different, for even before winter loosed its icy grip, devotees were camping overnight in Liberty Square to show solidarity for Ter-Petrosyan or at least the opportunity he represented. The former Chief joined their sleep-ins – albeit in the relative comfort and safety of his Lincoln Towncar rather than in a tent. By night the camp grew, and by day the rallies, until Kocharyan was pressed to eliminate the ever increasing challenge of the election’s legitimacy by promising a swift and convincing return to normalcy and to his government’s unquestioned hold on authority.
“Dear people, don’t become a tool in the hands of irresponsible political figures, it is not your game, you won’t gain in this game, you will only lose and the country will lose,” Kocharyan said in a televised statement intended for the crowds at Liberty Square. His comments also included his commitment to using “constitutional rights” to maintain order.
And when, in the cleanup of the mayhem of March 1, Republic of Armenia Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan issued a report critical of Kocharyan’s order of force, the President replied by telling the Ombudsman he should not pretend that Armenia is Strasbourg (home of the court of human rights).
Staunchly claiming his right to the seat awaiting him April 9, president-elect Sargsyan with support from Kocharyan made overtures of compromise, extending calls for dialogue and a coalition government. Whether the overtures were genuine would not be tested. For, just as staunchly, Ter-Petrosyan met his opponents’ gesture with jeers and insult claiming that President Robert Kocharyan should never even have been allowed to stand for president (because he had not met citizenship requirements) and saying that he would not negotiate with a law breaker.
While he held to his campaign of denigrating authorities, Ter-Petrosyan would also turn to the one authority – the Constitutional Court – that could reverse the Central Election Commission declaration empowering Sargsyan.
Meanwhile, as the eight opposition candidates negotiated with the government and softened their claims to having their own votes stolen, attention turned more toward the Orinats Yerkir party leader Artur Baghdasaryan who had refused to endorse Ter-Petrosyan (after claiming 16 percent of votes) and instead was showing features of an ambitious young politician looking for a deal and a future.
In the winter of 2006, before entering the presidential campaign, 39-year old Parliament Member Baghdasaryan was at the center of a controversial moment in the public spotlight when a tape was released revealing that he had met with United Kingdom Deputy Ambassador Richard Hyde in a Yerevan restaurant to seek Great Britain’s support of the opposition in the May 2007 parliamentary elections. The conversation was recorded on an audio tape by a secret device planted in the restaurant known to be frequented by converted oppositionist MP Khachatur Sukiasyan (now at large on charges relating to March 1).
At the time of the meeting, Baghdasaryan was embroiled in public fallout with Kocharyan, which had led to Baghdasaryan resigning his powerful post as Speaker of Parliament to become the defacto leader of Armenia’s then-anemic opposition.
During those days of rancor between Baghdsaryan and Kocharyan, the president called the deputy a “traitor” who, if he had betrayed his country once (by discussing such matters with a foreign diplomat), would do it again.
Yet on this February 29, a night before deadly force was ordered on the capital streets, Sargsyan named Baghdasaryan as Secretary of Security Council – hardly a post for a “traitor”. Before a new name could be stenciled on Baghdasaryan’s title, Armenia faced its worst internal security crisis ever – greater, many here feel, even than the 1999 parliament massacres that killed government leaders including the prime minister.
With whatever clout might be mustered by having the politically peripatetic Baghdasaryan back in the government fold, deals had been sealed and so had the fate of at least eight Armenians, according to the official admission, who would hardly see spring come to their country and would never know if democracy followed.
Morning breaks ugly
For citizens in Yerevan’s city center, the harbinger of the ensuing violence was the low rumble of tow trucks and the whine of police escorts. By about 7:30 a.m. the city’s main boulevard, Mashtots, was a parade of auto carriers hauling away cars that had been parked near the Opera House on Liberty Square, home of the country’s cultural heart.
Once the cars were cleared and ambulances in place the various uniforms assembled shoulder to shoulder to form a human noose tightening around the sleepy encampment. Onlookers drawn to the scene’s aftermath by the ruckus saw a site that looked as if a festival had been staged by participants too careless to clean after themselves. Between the statues of composer Spendaryan and writer Tumanyan, lay the oddly colorful remains of tents too frail to protect campers from the elements this morning had brought. Armed men in uniforms with red berets and others masked in black balaclavas closely guarded the rubble as if it were some sort of treasure while workers moved the trophy into waiting dump trucks. Then water hoses cleansed the ground.
Among about 700 or so encamped that morning were three brothers and their father.
The family is highly educated, multi-lingual, and includes one member who had worked for United Nations. They did not vote for Ter-Petrosyan, favoring instead Vazgen Manukyan, who tallied only 1.3 percent on February 19.
The brothers told ArmeniaNow that they joined the Liberty Square sit-in because they saw Ter-Petrosyan as a “tool” that could implement a positive change.
In 10 days of visiting Liberty Square, the brothers say they never saw a weapon, as Ter-Petrosyan himself had insisted that the crowd be peaceful.
“Even at the first rally (February 20), the crowd was chanting ‘now, now’ calling on Ter-Petrosyan to lead a revolution,” one brother recalls. “But he stopped them from shouting it, saying that the changes would come by peaceful means.”
They say that every night at Liberty Square there were warnings that police would break up the crowd, and that even on that Saturday morning at around 6 a.m., when police moved in, Ter-Petrosyan stood on the Opera House steps and told his people to avoid contact with police. They say he was asking police to please not harm the women in the crowd, when the “attack” by police began.
People were afraid, the brothers say, and started looking for items for protection, taking up sticks and tearing apart park benches.
“There was not even any word of warning, the police just started chasing and beating.”
The brothers and their father fled toward an opening in the ranks near Northern Avenue. In the dark, though, they didn’t see the trees surrounding Atlantic Café and were cut off from escape. The four men were among the hundreds beaten. One was knocked unconscious and later received six stitches in his head.
The brothers speculate that the action by police and the damage to the opposition’s image that followed was calculated to influence the Constitutional Court, prior to it hearing Ter-Petrosyan’s claim to have the election results invalidated.
They say, too, that contrary to pro-government characterization, this is not an opposition made up of the ill-informed or unsophisticated.
“These are not people who are marginalized,” one brother says. “There is a qualitative majority who are now against the authorities. This is important. Ter-Petrosyan, as an individual, is not the axis of this fight, but rather it is freedom and justice.”
Freedom vs power, hope vs corruption and even history. These and more collided in a flash of violence that preceded the uncomfortable and temporary calm early on Bloody Saturday.
Later stunned policemen, who are paid about $250 a month, sat smoking cigarettes and staring at the broken pieces of wood that their superiors would later describe as the weapons of a planned overthrow of the government. In front of the demonstrative statue of famed composer Aram Khachaturyan, lean army boys were awaiting the call to duty if necessary, in bulbous helmets and ill-fitting gray camouflage better suited for auto mechanics than for putting down insurrection. They exchanged “good mornings” with a passersby as, like puppies let from a cage, their faces showed no hint that they expected this day to end as it would.
Leader Ter-Petrosyan was taken to his private residence by presidential security guard. He has been there since, under virtual house arrest that the government says would be relinquished should Ter-Petrosyan waive his right for state protection. Among his followers, more than 100 are now in jail and many more were detained and others are on the run from authorities. The former president, a learned scholar, no doubt understands his own “Catch 22”.
The morning saw many, including law enforcement, sent to hospital. Many protestors, like the brother with his head split, were afraid to go immediately to hospital for fear of being arrested. One of their acquaintances was arrested, they say, simply because he called an ambulance to help the wounded. Scores had been beaten, more chased, shocked with cattle prods and driven into whatever safety they could find – some pursued on foot as far as nearly a mile away from the scene.
None, though, was dead. Nor was the anger that fueled their resistance.
Afternoon of unrest and questions
With the spread of news and rumors of the political cleansing that had taken place at Liberty Square, came a call to regroup. Thousands first met outside the French Embassy, joined there by the Republic of Armenia’s Ombudsman, by Heritage Party MPs Anahit Bakshyan and Armen Martirossyan (who suffered a stab wound trying to intervene in a fight). Joined there too by police, by special forces, by troops in a tense standoff of power.
By mid-afternoon 10s of thousands clogged an intersection in front of the Yerevan Municipality, under the statue of Alexander Myasnikian, the first Prime Minister of Soviet Armenia.
They would blockade themselves behind trolley buses strategically placed between the crowd and the police in riot gear, the soldiers with AK47s, the snipers with precision rifles. One of their leaders would urge the oppositionists to avoid contact with law enforcement. Another would remind them, though, that the morning’s event had shown a need for defense preparations.
They scavenged construction sites for lumber and iron. They dug up sidewalk masonry – stones put there for city beautification by an American billionaire – and stacked them strategically, using brightly painted park benches as crude ammo dumps.
By nightfall, campfires dotted the island parkway that separates Vazgen Sargsyan and Italian streets. Markets in the neighborhood were selling out of sausages and bottled water and bread, as preparations were laid for a night that ended sooner than planned.
Molotov cocktails, an explosion of liquid fire named for a Joseph Stalin lacky who helped carry out that dictator’s “Great Purge”, flew across barricades and into police at sometime near 9 p.m. One side says the bottles flew first, the other says they were the oppositionists answer to the first gunshot into the civilians. Either way, the instant launched an hour of death and mayhem and weeks of soviet-style repression of citizens that the respected international daily Christian Science Monitor would call “an ex-Soviet pattern” in the likes of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
In the next several minutes that saw the death of seven protestors and one police officer and injure at least 130, law enforcement used extreme force after, it says, exercising extreme patience in intervals of advancing/retreating against a mass that proved capable of withstanding anything short of slaughter.
Among the hundreds on the hunt to do harm were broad men in balaclavas -- black ski masks commonly worn by terrorists and Middle Eastern anti-terrorists -- armed to do their government’s work. Faceless men met hopeless nobodies and each unloaded on the other whatever justification necessary for the claims of leaders who later would deny what happened and for a government that would silence any voice of dissent. “Not a single shot was fired into the crowd of protestors,” a police report said days later.
It is, at worst, a desperate lie, disproved by witnesses and their videos. It is, at best, one of the many disputed events of a horrible day that now divides newsrooms and offices across the capital into those who believe the one voice that is allowed to tell its tale publicly, the government version, and those who believe what a controversial video shows when members of law enforcement brace in combat position and fire dead level in the direction of civilians on Mashtots Avenue.
Whatever happened, it ended almost as if a switch had been thrown to stop it when President Kocharyan declared a State of Emergency at 10 p.m. quieting a day of questionable decisions and a day of decidedly unanswered questions. Such as:
• If, as oppositionists claim, they were only taking up improvised weapons for self-defense, then where did the “Molotov cocktails” – typically not considered for personal defense – come from? (Some reports from the scene say the flammables were made from the petrol of buses taken over by the opposition.)
• If law enforcement, as they say, went to Liberty Square with the intent of conducting a search for weapons, etc., why would they go there in the dark of night, when waiting just another hour or so would have offered sunlight for their search?
• If, police, as they say, engaged force at Liberty Square “out of the unpredictability of the situation”, how is it that they were so prepared to use lethal force, while apparently having made no preparation for a peaceful disbursement?
• If, as state (“public”) television portrayed, there were guns left on the ground by the fleeing protestors: 1. Why would someone who by premeditation carried a gun, be so careless as to drop it in a manner, as the New York Times reported “nestled like Easter eggs in the grass.” 2. If so many guns were being carried by drunk, drug-addled protestors (as police and state TV portrayed them), why was no shot fired during the break up of their camp?
• If, as state television portrayed through showing frame after frame of hypodermic needles intended to indicate mass drug abuse among the protestors, why, during un-resisted looting, did that mob rob a shoe store and a grocery store, but did not loot two pharmacies in between – presumably stocked with narcotics?
• If, as reported by the Prosecutor General, the mob on Mashtots was intent on random theft and destruction, why were the four home electronics and computer shops less than a block away – typically primary targets of mass looting – not touched?
• If, as reported by police and portrayed by state television, the crowd had been stripped of its many weapons during the raid at Liberty Square, why did that crowd not re-arm itself by looting the two gun shops on Mashtots during their hysteric marauding?
Forward?
Behind the Republican Party of Armenia’s slogan of “Forward Armenia”, and the resistance of those who would rather repeat history than endure a Sergzh Sargsyan administration this nation has indeed been led. Backward.
Whatever respect Armenia might have earned, bought or deceived from Europe and the West has been wrecked with little chance for repair until at least 2013 when democracy will once again be offered another chance by those whose tolerance has been sorely tested and whose confidence proved misplaced.
Worse, internally, it is widely agreed that the events of March 1 have unraveled whatever stitching together of progress was achieved during the outgoing administration’s many advancements and setbacks in trying to negeotiate peace with Azerbaijan in the case for Nagorno Karabakh. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says near negotiations are now “doubtful”.
Still, if the battles waged on Yerevan’s streets were an election, perhaps international observers could have said that while not exactly meeting international standards, things could have been worse. Worse happens daily in the regional neighborhoods. Yes there was some wrongdoing observers might say, but, overall the individual incidents of wrongdoing could not influence the final outcome. So proved March 8, the “Seventh Day” of ceremonial mourning and the day the Constitutional Court predictably confirmed February 19’s election results.
The aftermath
Outrage is already subsiding, replaced by a sadness of heart and psyche. Acceptance will soon be traded for belief, in some sort of entropic inevitability that requires too much energy to resist. Still, the despair born as this March entered Armenia like a lion is likely to last long after the month has hopefully left like a lamb. Belief is strained, relations are fractured. And absorbing the sole voice of propaganda is hardly even objectionable anymore, trumped by much more grievous acts upon a people learning more about diminishing returns than democracy.
Ugly truth stood for itself on Bloody Saturday, and it devastated a people who own a historic pride in their hospitality. The truth did not set Armenia free. The truth gutted a people who have little more than their common blood to hold whatever stake others have tried to take from them time and again. But on this awful Saturday it was not the blood of a different father or the blood of a different god that stained sidewalks and vandalized decency.
The sacrifice of a collective soul was both paid for and extracted by kin, costly and unacceptable.
Armenia has had 17 years of lessons in democracy and growing pains and of striving to “meet international standards”. Now it has names of dead.
Zakhar Hovhannisyan.Gor Kloyan. David Petrosyan. Tigran Khachatryan. Grigor Gevorgyan. Hovhannes Hovhannisyan. Armen Farmanyan. Hamlet Tadevosyan.
By the Armenian custom of “karasoonk”, the dead are to be mourned for 40 days. For these dead the period passes on April 9. On the same day, Sergzh Sargsyan will be inaugurated.
John Hughes

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