Published since 07.2002
Published on May 09, 2008
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: OPPOSITIONIST ANALYST HAS CAREER AS HUNGER STRIKER
- When in the middle of April law enforcement entered Lusine Hayrapetyan’s home for the purpose of conducting a search they advised her to voluntarily surrender weapons, leaflets or pamphlets that were possibly kept at her apartment. But Lusine brought only a set of kitchen knives and said: “These are the only weapons at our home, and the strongest weapon is Suren’s mind and tongue because unlike many he speaks his mind. And you know where he is.” Suren Surenyants, a member of the political council of the opposition Hanrapetutyun party and political analyst, as well as his family, including wife Lusine and two children, have suffered considerably because of their “strongest weapon”. On February 25, Surenyants was a replacement for the main host of the public rallies, outspoken government critic Nikol Pashinyan, who had talked himself hoarse leading chants at Yerevan’s Liberty Square. On the evening of that day Surenyants disappeared and some time later it was announced that he had been detained. Surenyants is facing several grave charges including “organization of unlawful public rallies”, “disregarding police appeals”, “organization of mass disturbances”, and “usurpation of power.” As a result of another season of internal political tensions Surenyants again found himself locked up in Nubarashen jail where several dozen more opposition activists would be brought days later. “The epicenter of real struggle had moved to the penitentiaries and the National Security Service [jail],” Surenyants says. “People began their original struggle not in streets surrounded by police but in detention centers where inmates appeared to enjoy more protection.” On March 24, in protest against the charges brought against him, the 33-year-old historian by training and oppositionist by nature embarked on the fourth open-ended hunger-strike in his life choosing it as “one of the forms of real struggle”. “A hunger-strike cannot be an end in itself,” Surenyants says. “Before starting a hunger-strike one has to make an announcement to different instances, send demands in different directions. Otherwise, you cannot express your demands and protest.” The first time Surenyants stated his demands in the form of a hunger-strike was in the spring of 1996, April 18-20. Along with about 4,000 students, members of the then Justice trade union went to the presidential palace in a demonstration of protest and several hours later a group of them led by Surenyants began a hunger-strike next to the president’s office building. “Can you imagine anyone doing a hunger-strike near the presidential palace today? Surenyants asks. “No one detained us back then, moreover, after the hunger-strike that lasted for two days we solved at least two major issues for students – the preservation of military chairs (where students could learn army skills and professions and were not conscripted later upon graduation) and the issue connected with the self-regulation of students.” After the two-day hunger-strike in tents, a meeting was organized at the presidential palace for Surenyants, then a student, and other activists with the education minister and relevant officials. “At that time not only did we solve our problems, but also after that we were invited to all major discussions where our voice was heard. Those years and now are incomparable,” says Surenyants. He also mentions Eduard Sharmazanov, currently a senior lawmaker representing the governing Republican Party of Armenia, who back then was one of the activists and hunger-strikers. “It was not only that we went on hunger-strikes with Eduard Sharmazanov during those years, but I can say that he was not only an activist, but was a major role-player,” says Surenyants. The second hunger-strike experience for Surenyants came later that year, in November, and lasted for three days. It was to protest against “the presence of political prisoners in the country”, in particular against the imprisonment of a number of members of the then opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation. “I cannot say that we fully achieved our goal, however the prisoners were released in due course of time,” Surenyants says. “A hunger-strike never gives an immediate result. It is a floor through which people’s words become audible. And to think that one can solve an issue by means of a hunger-strike is as naïve as to think that a power change can be effected with one public rally.” The third time Surenyants went on hunger-strike was in May 2004 after the police dispersal of an opposition demonstration in April. He had been kept at the National Security Service’s basement jail for a month accused of “making calls for overthrowing the constitutional order” and “insulting representatives of the authorities.” “I was on a six-day hunger-strike in 2004,” Surenyants remembers. “It is understandable that it is impossible to achieve the satisfaction of all your demands through a hunger-strike, because in that case that would become a means of blackmail, however at the same time I want to say that in any case it changed the situation.” Surenyants says that his fourth and [so far] longest hunger-strike “independent of his will” became the biggest one as more than 40 detainees had gone on hunger-strikes alongside. “On March 24, I wrote a statement to the chief warden of the penitentiary, saying that I was beginning a hunger-strike action. That’s a prescribed order. Besides, as in the previous cases, I had sent demands in different directions,” Surenyants says. He says that he experienced no bad treatment at the detention center. He says they tried to persuade him not to resort to that action, but when they saw it was pointless they convoyed him to a special cell foreseen for hunger-strikers where for 12 days on end Surentyants was on a hunger-strike under medical supervision. “I was calm during that period. I had read 15 books by such authors as Salinger, Senkevich, Hovnan Voskeberan, Hamo Sahyan… I read newspapers, listened to Radio Liberty and was badly missing Yerevan,” he remembers. Losing 12 kilograms within 12 days, Surenyants began to experience serious health problems and on April 18, after being kept in custody for 52 days, Surenyants was released due to a petition made by pro-government members of parliament Eduard Sharmazanov, Armen Ashotyan and Naira Zohrabyan, but was confined to city limits as the case against him was not dismissed. But despite the health problems that he experienced this time around, Surenyants says he endured his latest hunger-strike more easily than the previous one. “This time when it was dinner time the guard opened the small door and asked whether I wanted to continue my hunger-strike since it was dinner time, and after hearing my answer he closed it, and in 2004 when I was at the National Security Service, they brought food and placed it in front of me, which is generally unacceptable and a real test for the inexperienced.” Surenyants, whose personal tally now stands at 23 days on hunger-strike and 110 days in custody, says that during all his hunger-strikes he could fully control himself. For instance, he drank three liters of water and tried to stay calm. Surenyants is 174 centimeters high and weighed 86 kg before the hunger strike, now he is 74 kg. “The first thing I thought I would eat after stopping my hunger-strike was barbecue, but doctors did not allow me. And that’s natural because during the first seven days after ending a hunger-strike it is not allowed to eat meat,” says Surenyants, adding that during that period he ate yoghurts, juices and light soup. Surenyants says he never ate prison meal as he chose to eat meal brought by his family from home. “A hunger-strike for me is first of all a psychological matter and if you can prepare for that, there will be no problem,” the experienced hunger-striker believes. “First of all, you should psychologically overcome the consequences of hunger and in that case your body will not feel the physical discomfort.”
- Marianna Grigoryan
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Today in Armenian history- 1847 Summit Meeting of the representatives of the Transcaucasian Armenian community.
- 1847 With the participation of the gentry and commoners, the National, Ecclesiastic, and Supreme Council is created in Constantinople. It is the first step towards the creation of the "Constitution".
- 1859 A Committee, consisting of 5 clergymen and 14 laymen, is struck in Constantinople to write the "Constitution". The Chariman was Rusinian.
- 1945 End of World War Two (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in the USSR).
- 1964 Death of Vahan Totomyants, professor and public figure.
- 1992 Shooshee (Artsakh) is liberated after 71 years of occupation by Azeri Turks.
- 1994 Protocol negotiated in the Artsakh War and signed in Bishkek (Kirgizstan) by the parliamentary speakers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Artsakh as mediated by Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. This was the first recognition of Artsakhs distinctiveness as a political and territorial entity in the negotiations. Azerbaijan occupied 750 sq. km. (15%) of Artsakhs territory, while Artsakh occupied 7059 sq. km. (8%) of territory considered to have traditionally been possessed by Azerbaijan.
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