1. Political Prisoners. Persecution of
dissenters.

    - Edgar Arakelyan Sentence Remains Unchanged

[30.06.2004]

The Court of Appeal made a decision on Wednesday to leave unchanged compliant
filed by Edgar Arakelyan, 24, who had been sentenced by the first instance court
to a year and six months in jail for hitting a policeman with an empty plastic
bottle in self-defense while attacked by the police at one of the
opposition-staged rallies.

Many times during the court session the accused stressed he had been reluctant
to resort to self-defense after having been severely beaten by the police.

Edgar tried to tell how he had been beaten in Prosecutor Office in an attempt to
extract false testimony from him.

The judge Suren Ghazaryan interrupted him saying his story was irrelevant to the
case and has no connection with his appeal.

Sahak Martirossyan, the policeman hit with the bottle, said he hadn’t been hurt
and urged the court to display clemency toward Edgar. But it was in vain.

Prosecution side voiced alarm at the incident saying it can set a precedent for
future cases and putting special emphasis upon the fact that not ordinary man
but law enforcement officer was hit.


http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1779

    - Protest Action Launched By Human Rights Activists
outside Prosecutor General Office in Yerevan

[30.06.2004]

Armenian organizations’ activists gathered Wednesday outside the Prosecutor
General Office in a support of Edgar Arakelyan, 24, who is sentenced to a year
and six months in jail for hitting a policeman with an empty plastic bottle in
self-defense while attacked by the police at one of the opposition-staged
rallies.

Edgar’s compliant will be heard today in the Court of Appeal.

Protesters were carrying signs with messages like “A state grounded on lie is
doomed to failure” or “We demand a just trial”. One of the action participants
carried a banner with nothing written on it. In his words, this is the best way
to express opinion about the authorities. “Who doesn’t want to know the truth
attaches no significance to what is written on banners”, he said.

Izabella Sargssyan, a member of Armenian Committee of Helsinki Assembly, said
the committee is steadfast in its determination to struggle as long as plastic
bottles are being considered as weapons threatening law enforcement officers’
lives.


http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1778

    - Prominent Writer Returns State Award To Protest
‘Repression’

[06.07.2004]

One of Armenia’s most renowned writers returned on Tuesday a prestigious state
award given to her by President Robert Kocharian in 1998, in protest against his
government’s controversial crackdown on the opposition.

Poetess Silva Kaputikian sent back her Medal of Mesrop Mashtots to the
presidential administration through two representatives. Kaputikian, 85,
confirmed that the decision resulted from the brutal dispersal of an opposition
demonstration in Yerevan on the night from April 12-13.

“It was a very difficult decision for me to take,” she said. “I keep wondering
why the situation in our independent republic should be such that I have to
return the medal carrying the name of Mesrop Mashtots.”

Scores of people were injured and arrested on that night when baton-wielding
riot police used water cannons and stun grenades to break up the protest on the
city’s Marshal Baghramian avenue leading to the Kocharian’s residence. The use
of force was part of a broader crackdown launched by the authorities in response
to the opposition campaign for Kocharian’s resignation.

It has involved arrests and imprisonments of opposition activists across the
country and has been denounced by local and international human rights groups.
Kaputikian likewise referred to the drastic measures as “repressions.” However,
the authorities defend them, accusing the opposition of resorting to
“unconstitutional” methods of political struggle.

Speaking last May, Kocharian deplored the writer’s gesture of protest, saying
that his reaction would have been “tougher” if she had not been so famous and
respected in Armenia. Some prominent pro-Kocharian intellectuals have also
criticized her.

But Kaputikian defended her decision. “I will take comfort from the fact that it
is not with a medal that I will feel attached to Mesrop Mashtots,” she said,
referring to the 5th century cleric who invented the Armenian alphabet. “On the
contrary, I believe that I stayed faithful to Mesrop Mashtots with this step.”


By Karine Kalantarian


http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1781

2. Women Rights

OSCE Office to Hold Training On Women's Rights Education in Armenia

[01.07.2004]

In order to support women's rights education and develop their leadership
skills, the OSCE Office in Yerevan this week began a 5-day training course for
regional trainers.

More than 2000 women have already taken part in seminars prepared and conducted
by seventeen trainers since 2002 in nine regions of Armenia. The topics covered
by the seminars include human rights, domestic violence and human trafficking.
This initiative is funded by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (ODIHR).

"The project is one of the few international initiatives that reach outside of
Yerevan and aims at enhancing women's participation in public life," said Blanka
Hancilova, Democratization Officer with the OSCE Office Yerevan. "Women in
Armenia, especially in the regions, find it challenging to take part in the
decision making processes of their communities. Our program should give them the
necessary skills and knowledge".

Other gender-related efforts carried out by the OSCE Office in co-operation with
ODIHR focus on gender education in secondary and high schools, integrating
gender components into state policies, conducting gender-based analysis of
legislation and raising the gender awareness of legislators, civil servants,
non-governmental organizations, political parties and the media.


http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1780