Published since 1951
Published on December 01, 2006
Armenian Police ‘Rewarded For Opposition Crackdown’
- Armenian police officers who brutally broke up a opposition demonstration near President Robert Kocharian’s office in April 2004 were subsequently rewarded with cash, medals and even personal firearms, a radical opposition leader alleged on Friday. The day-long protest marked the climax of an unsuccessful opposition campaign of street protests aimed at forcing Kocharian to step down. Hundreds of riot police backed by interior troops used water cannons, stun grenades and, according to some witness accounts, electric-shock equipment to disperse up to 3,000 people that camped near the presidential palace in Yerevan on the night from April 12-13, 2004. More a hundred people were arrested on the spot and scores of others badly injured as the crowd fled the scene in panic. Security forces also beat up several photojournalists who covered the overnight protest, smashing their cameras and detaining some of them. Local and international human rights groups strongly condemned what they saw as a disproportionate use of force at the time. The Armenian authorities rejected the criticism, saying that they prevented an opposition coup d’etat. Aram Karapetian, the leader of the Nor Zhamanakner (New Times) party, unveiled on Friday what he described as copies of confidential directives issued by the chief of Armenia’s Police Service, Lieutenant-General Hayk Harutiunian, nine days after the crackdown. One of the alleged directives ordered payment of 20,000 drams ($54) in bonuses to mostly low-ranking policemen that quelled the protest. It credited them with maintaining “public order” and preventing “mass riots.” According to Karapetian, Harutiunian also gave top police awards, including Bravery Medals, and expensive pistols to other, more high-level officers, notably Major-General Ashot Gizirian, chief of a feared police unit charged with combating organized crime and drug trafficking. The Armenian police did not immediately comment on the allegations made at a meeting of a broad-based coalition of opposition groups fighting against what their leaders claim is a growing presence of “criminal elements” in the country’s leadership. Karapetian told reporters that he got hold of the purported document copies after a tip-off from unknown informed individuals. “These documents were stashed somewhere,” he said. “They called me and said where.” The oppositionist suggested that the anonymous callers work for the police. “I think there is a very serious group inside the police that thinks we just can’t carry on like this,” he said.
- By Ruzanna Stepanian
Headlines for December 01, 2006
Armenia Cools Azeri Talk Of Karabakh Breakthrough
By Emil Danielyan and Anna Saghabalian
Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday made differing assessments of the latest peace talks between their presidents, with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian saying that progress reportedly made by them is overstated ...Markarian Urges Russia To Tackle Hate Crimes
Aza Babayan in Moscow
Prime Minister Andranik Markarian urged Russia’s government to tackle continuing racist attacks on Armenians and minimize losses incurred by Armenian companies as a result of the Russian economic blockade ...Armenian Police ‘Rewarded For Opposition Crackdown’
By Ruzanna StepanianArmenian police officers who brutally broke up a opposition demonstration near President Robert Kocharian’s office in April 2004 were subsequently rewarded with cash, medals and even personal firearms, ...
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Today in Armenian history- 1824 The Nerssissian school opens in Tbilissi (Georgia) and continues to operate till 1924.
- 1827 Creation of an Armenian printing-house in Shooshee (Artsakh).
- 1827 Sultan Mahmud the Second expels about 12000 Armenian Catholics from Constantinople. Some 4000 die of exposure along the way and the remainder are banished to provinces of Asia Minor, which they reach in February 1828.
- 1876 The Turkish government orders the burning of the market of Van and destroys Armenian properties.
- 1894 Publication of the "Struggle" newspaper (Association of Armenian Worker-Revolutionaries).
- 1899 Death of Tigran Yerkat, publicist and public figure.
- 1903 Death of Manvel Qadjooni, historian, geographer, and philologist. He was born in 1823.
- 1903 Death of Manuel Katjooni (historian) in Constantinople. He was born in 1823.
- 1914 Battle of Sarighamish. Destruction of the Turkish Army, that was led by Enver Pasha.
- 1915 United States President Theodore Roosevelt states: The crowning outrage has been committed by the Turks on the Armenians. They have suffered atrocities so hideous that it is difficult to name them, such atrocities such as those inflicted upon conquered nations by the followers of Attila and Genghis Khan. It is dreadful that these things can be done and that this nation nevertheless remains neutral.
- 1917 The People's Commissariat of Nationalities of Soviet Russia creates the Commissariat of Armenian Affairs in Moscow. Varlam Avanesov is appointed commissar and Vahan Teryan (poet) is the deputy.
- 1920 The Revolutionary Council of Azerbaijan recognizes Gharabagh, Zangezur, and Nakhichevan to be parts of Armenia.
- 1921 Elections of the first Peasant District and Provincial Unions in Armenia.
- 1923 The Komitas State Conservatory of Music opens in Yerevan.
- 1929 Yerevan's Kanaker radio station starts its broadcasts.
- 1941 Colonel Simon Zakyan heads the new Armenian 89th Rifle Division.
- 1989 The reunification of Artsakh and Armenia is accepted during a joint session of the Parliaments of Armenia and Artsakh. This was followed by the adoption, by Artsakhs legislative body, of a motion to secede from Azerbaijan. The Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan rejected the decision as illegal and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declare? it null and void.
- 1989 The Supreme Council of Mountainous Gharabagh (Artsakh) decides to rejoin Armenia in a joint session with the Armenian supreme Council.
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