Police in Yerevan on Monday confirmed reports about a violent dispute between
activists of Armenia’s two main establishment parties, but claimed that none of
their senior figures was involved in it.

Armenian newspapers reported over the weekend that the incident occurred in the
city’s southern Erebuni district on Thursday and involved the local leaders of
the governing Republican Party (HHK) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of
businessman Gagik Tsarukian. Citing unnamed government sources, they said the
district’s Republican prefect, Mher Sedrakian, and a group of his loyalists
attacked and beat up the head of the local BHK chapter, Harutiun Karapoghosian,
after he refused to stop his party’s aggressive campaigning in the blue-collar
area.

The row reportedly degenerated into a mass fight between local HHK and BHK
activists and ended only after police intervention. President Robert Kocharian,
who is believed to control the BHK, was said to have held an emergency meeting
with the top HHK leader, Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian, and the chief of the
Armenian police, Hayk Harutiunian, later on Thursday.

But according to the chief of Yerevan’s police department, Major-General Nerses
Nazarian, what happened was a mere “dispute of friendly character” in which
neither Sedrakian nor Karapoghosian had any role. “There was really a dispute
between local young people,” Nazarian told a news conference. “They have
differing views on elections and other minor differences, but they are neighbors
and friends.”

“But we managed to settle that minor dispute. They were warned against causing
more such incidents,” he said.

Nazarian added that four men were detained and taken to the local police station
for questioning. “They asked us not to turn their friendly relationship into
criminal prosecution,” he said. “Their parents were invited to the police
station, and they also talked to each other … In the end, they shook hands,
hugged each other and were allowed to go.”

Launching criminal proceedings against them would therefore be a “very bad
thing,” reasoned the police general.

Erebuni has for years been considered a de facto fiefdom of Sedrakian, who has
extensive business interests in the district and is regarded as a crime figure
by some media and opposition leaders. Sedrakian, who is better known to locals
as Tokhmakhi Mher, actively campaigned for the HHK’s and Kocharian’s victory in
the 2003 parliamentary and presidential elections.

Sedrakian narrowly survived an apparent assassination attempt in July 2003 when
his car was rocked by a bomb. Nobody was ever prosecuted in connection with the
blast.

The latest Erebuni incident was the first reported instance of violence between
representatives of the HHK and the BHK. It will stoke lingering speculation
about a potentially bitter rivalry between the two parties that are likely to
grab the largest number of seats in Armenia’s next parliament.

Neither party officially commented on the incident on Monday. But one senior
Republican described it as a “provocation against both parties” which he said
was organized by the opposition Orinats Yerkir Party of former parliament
speaker Artur Baghdasarian. Gagik Melikian did not elaborate.

Mher Shahgeldian, Orinats Yerkir’s deputy chairman, laughed off the allegation.
“This is an absurd statement,” he told RFE/RL. “What is Orinats Yerkir to do
with their relations?”

Many local commentators are convinced that the leaders of the HHK and the BHK
will agree on a mutually acceptable outcome of the May 12 parliamentary
elections despite their somewhat frosty rapport. Some suggest that such an
agreement has already been reached.

“I don’t see a confrontation between us,” noted Melikian. “What I see is a
honest and open competition.”

Nazarian was also asked to comment on another brawl that reportedly took place
at a private Yerevan college last week between two groups of young men led by
sons of Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian and Minister for Local Government
Hovik Abrahamian. He insisted that none of the participants of the “dispute over
a girl” is related to either influential official.

“Two guys were in love with the same girl,” said the Yerevan police chief. “A
dispute broke out between them. The university management tried to separate
them, but they threw chairs at each other and one accidentally hit the
pro-rector.”

By Karine Kalantarian and Hovannes Shoghikian