Congress should Condemn Armenia's Flawed Presidential Election and hold Hearings

USAN Action Letter: Congress should Condemn Armenia's Flawed Presidential Election and hold Hearings

On February 19, Armenia held its controversial presidential elections. On March 1, peaceful protest demonstrations of Armenian opposition, that drew tens of thousands, have been dispersed with extreme violence and brutality by Armenian security forces which killed 8 people on the streets of Yerevan. A 20-day complete censorship and state of emergency were imposed, making all but impossible to get truthful coverage and information on casualties, which are claimed to be far higher.

The former war lord and incumbent Prime Minister, Serzh Sarkisian, assisted by state media and various manipulations and fraud (e.g., the vote count in 16% of precincts was "bad or very bad" according to international observer mission of OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE/PA and PACE), won 53% of the vote - just enough to deny a recount, and strikingly similar to the disputed 1996 election, in which the current second-place contender, Levon Ter-Petrossian, got almost 52%. Seems like nothing has changed in Armenia.

In between these rough 12 years between one disputed election to this one (in both cases a runoff, second round, was needed), Armenians endured a coup d'etat in 1998 that forced its president into retirement and takeover of presidency by another war lord Kocharyan, then a 1999 crisis from gunmen assassinating the popular Prime Minister Sargsyan, Speaker Demirchiyan, and several more officials in broad daylight in the nation's Parliament. Not the least among flagrant violations of law in Armenia is the continued military occupation of 16% of Azerbaijan, ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Azerbaijani civilians and crimes against humanity in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

What is also deplorable, however, is that in all this time and with all these egregious violations of international obligations and human rights, the US Congress, and specifically the US Helsinki Commission (CSCE), has never held any hearings on elections and democratization in Armenia - despite US taxpayers footing well over $1,7 billion dollars in aid since 1992 to the corrupt military regime in Armenia that is committing massive violations against its own citizenry as well as citizens of its neighbor.

Whilst in the same time frame, the US Helsinki Commission held numerous hearings on Armenia's neighbors, Azerbaijan and Georgia, but never done so on Armenia and Armenian elections, democratization and human rights.

Such a reaction, or lack thereof, which can be called as "Magna Silencia", is unacceptable. What message does it send to everyone, from peaceful protestors in Armenia, to innocent civilians in Azerbaijan whose homes are destroyed and held by Armenian military regime, to US taxpayers who have been duped into thinking that their money is democratizing Armenia. This is not acceptable for anyone who believes in democracy, and not acceptable to US taxpayers.

The Helsinki Commission along with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee should initiate urgent hearings, and invite their colleagues from the EP, OSCE and PACE to also hold their hearings on the Armenian elections, its short-term and long-term impact on regional security in the Caucasus region, the waste of generous aid to Armenia, and the burden of military occupation which is not allowing Armenia to break away from its inherently undemocratic status. For the people in the region it is important to see a clear and firm position of the US on the situation in Armenia.

You can find bellow some articles and video materials about bloody events in Armenia:

1) Bloodshed in Armenia (The Economist):
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10809006

2) Silence on Armenia (article appeared in Washington Post). By Levon Ter-Petrossian (opposition leader):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030402329.html

3) This video shows how Armenian security forces kill innocent citizens in Yerevan: http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=RHhKq-0zKXg