The embattled television station A1+ continued to have problems in 2005. In January, the Armenian Academy of Sciences continued its demands that the company vacate the premises it used at one of the Yerevan buildings, which also hosted a number of media editorial offices. The company has been off the air since April 2002, when National Commission on Television and Radio refused to give A1+ a broadcasting licence. The company has participated in seven licence tenders since that time, but without success. According to the Yerevan Press Club, A1+ currently operates as a production studio, along with the editorial office of a popular Web site www.a1plus.am, the Ayb-Feh weekly, and the television training courses of A1+’s founder, Meltex LLC.

The station was evicted from its premises in July, and it was given notice to vacate its office in the Armenian Academy of Sciences by 23 July. A1+ now largely produces programmes for regional television stations, as well as keeping a Web site and publishing a weekly newspaper.

However, later in July, Prime Minister Andranik Markarian asked the head of the governmental Department of State Property Management to find alternative premises A1+. The station also found a compromise with the Academy of Sciences President Fadey Sarkisian and may continue to occupy its offices until new accommodations were found.

According to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) report, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will most likely agree to hold hearings and make a ruling on the hotly disputed 2002 closure of A1+ in January 2006.

On the afternoon of 1 April, the car of Samvel Alexanyan, editor-in-chief of the Syunats Yerkir newspaper, was burned in the yard of his house in Goris, in the southeastern region of Kapan. According to reports, Alexanyan received threats after he gave an interview to the Novoye Vremya newspaper on 12 March. He issued a statement on the same day in which he accused the regional administrator Surik Khachatrian of instigating an arson attack that destroyed his car.

According to RFE/RL, Alexanyan claimed Khachatrian was angered by an interview Alexanyan gave to a Yerevan newspaper in March. Alexanyan similarly blamed Khachatrian for an attack on his newspaper’s premises in autumn of 2004.

The subject of the 1915 murder of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey continues to be a sore point in relations between Armenia and Turkey. Armenian President Robert Kocharian urged Turkey to acknowledge the killings as a genocide when addressing the opening session of an international conference in Yerevan on 20 April.

On 13 July, seven Armenian media groups, such as the Yerevan Press Club and the Armenian Union of Journalists, released a joint letter criticising the government’s proposed constitutional amendments. In the letter, they argued that the constitutional amendments would inadequately guarantee the independence of the National Commission on Radio and Television, which regulates commercial broadcasting. They also maintained that presidential power to appoint all nine commission members should be curtailed, and that the Armenian parliament must have the power to endorse or reject appointees to the Commission. Criticism of the absence of any proposed changes to the formation of the governing board of the Armenian Public Television and Radio was also voiced.

The media groups also released a joint statement on 27 July, in which they criticized a 21 July statement by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, which positively evaluated the latest version of draft constitutional amendments proposed by the Armenian government. According to an RFE/RL report, the groups believe that the Commission’s proposals on the freedom, independence, and diversity of mass media are flawed and cannot put in place the necessary guarantees of freedom of speech in Armenia.

According to RFE/RL, the draft constitutional amendments are to be debated by the parliament on 29 August before being voted on in a national referendum in November.

On 27 November, Armenia held a referendum on a package of draft constitutional amendments to the 1995 constitution. A few international monitors were present, and they and local observer groups reported large-scale fraud, such as inflation of turnout numbers, ballot stuffing and intimidation of observers. According to official results, Armenians endorsed the amendments.

30.03.2006