Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07YEREVAN1423
2007-12-14 11:09:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Yerevan
Cable title:
BOMB ROCKS OUTSPOKEN OPPOSITION PAPER IN YEREVAN
how-toVZCZCXYZ0000 PP RUEHWEB DE RUEHYE #1423/01 3481109 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 141109Z DEC 07 FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6737 INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 001423
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR EUR/CARC
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AM
SUBJECT: BOMB ROCKS OUTSPOKEN OPPOSITION PAPER IN YEREVAN
REF: YEREVAN 1279
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4
(b,d).
-------
SUMMARY
-------
C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 001423
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR EUR/CARC
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AM
SUBJECT: BOMB ROCKS OUTSPOKEN OPPOSITION PAPER IN YEREVAN
REF: YEREVAN 1279
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4
(b,d).
--------------
SUMMARY
--------------
1. (C) An outspoken opposition newspaper was bombed in the
early hours on December 13. Nobody was in the offices of the
stridently pro-Ter-Petrossian &Chorrord Ishkhanutyun8
(Fourth Estate) newspaper when the bomb went off, and no
injuries were reported. The editor-in-chief suggested the
authorities masterminded the bombing, claiming the paper had
received two recent threats about its portrayals of Prime
Minister Sargsian. The police launched an investigation into
the bombing, but have yet to release a statement. Armenia,s
government Ombudsman condemned the incident, saying it
threatens freedom of expression and pluralism. End summary.
-------------- --------------
BLAST AT OPPOSTION PAPER AS POLITICAL TEMPERATURE RISES
-------------- --------------
2. (U) At 4:40 in the morning on December 13, a bomb rocked
the entrance of the offices of the radical, opposition
&Chorrord Ishkhanutyun8 (Fourth Estate) newspaper. Planted
outside the office, the bomb severely damaged the front doors
and resulted in minor damage to furniture inside the office.
Nobody was inside the building when the bomb went off, and
police confirmed that there were no injuries. The police
have launched an investigation.
3. (U) Shogher Matevosyan, the editor-in-chief of the
&Fourth Estate8, suggested the authorities had a hand in
the bombing, claiming her staff had received two recent
threats to tone down its aggressive caricatures of Prime
Minister Sargsian. She said the Prime Minister's well-known
bodyguard/driver/aide "Vatcho" had delivered one of these,
and another came from a controversial district mayor of
Yerevan's Erebuni district.
4. (SBU) The &Fourth Estate,8 which is published twice a
week, has a lowly circulation of 4,000, and is generally
untrustworthy in its reporting. It is a radical opposition
paper that has fervently backed the campaign of ex-President
Levon Ter-Petrossian. Matevosyan is one of the five
Ter-Petrossian activists who were detained by Yerevan police
)- and subsequently charged with resisting police orders --
in late October (reftel). In that case, police forcibly
intervened to break up a pro-Ter-Petrossian demonstration the
activists were holding to promote the ex-President,s first
public rally held October 26.
5. (U) Police have yet to issue a formal statement on the
bombing. Aram Harutyunyan, the Armenian government's Human
Rights Defender (Ombudsman),issued one the day of the
bombing, however. He told Armenian wire services that the
bombing threatened the establishment of freedom of expression
and pluralism in Armenia. &Democracy is based on
tolerance,8 he said, &and in this respect such (an)
intolerant attitude to media carries an extremely dangerous
tendency, which is indecent for the (sic) society striving
for democracy and legal state (sic).8
--------------
COMMENT
--------------
6. (C) The bombing of the &Fourth Estate8 office is
potentially an ominous harbinger of things to come as the
presidential election approaches and the political stakes
rise. Unfortunately, Armenia has a track record of
election-related violence, and bombings of opposition media
and political opponents have occurred before during close
races. Usually, these bombings go unsolved. While it seems
more likely than not that the bombing was what it first seems
-- intimidation from pro-regime forces -- we also do not rule
out the possibility that the Ter-Petrossian camp may itself
be responsible. Ter-Petrossian's team understands that the
government's relatively heavy-handed tactics against
Ter-Petrossian supporters have played right into opposition
hands. Such incidents reinforce the ex-president's chief
contention that the current authorities are a bunch of
criminal hooligans, while also subtly underlining that the
authorities fear Ter-Petrossian as an opponent. Whether this
bombing was actually a ham-handed move by thuggish
pro-governmental partisans, or an opposition gambit to look
like one, the likely outcome is the same: more credibility
and sympathy for Ter-Petrossian.
PENNINGTON
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR EUR/CARC
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AM
SUBJECT: BOMB ROCKS OUTSPOKEN OPPOSITION PAPER IN YEREVAN
REF: YEREVAN 1279
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4
(b,d).
--------------
SUMMARY
--------------
1. (C) An outspoken opposition newspaper was bombed in the
early hours on December 13. Nobody was in the offices of the
stridently pro-Ter-Petrossian &Chorrord Ishkhanutyun8
(Fourth Estate) newspaper when the bomb went off, and no
injuries were reported. The editor-in-chief suggested the
authorities masterminded the bombing, claiming the paper had
received two recent threats about its portrayals of Prime
Minister Sargsian. The police launched an investigation into
the bombing, but have yet to release a statement. Armenia,s
government Ombudsman condemned the incident, saying it
threatens freedom of expression and pluralism. End summary.
-------------- --------------
BLAST AT OPPOSTION PAPER AS POLITICAL TEMPERATURE RISES
-------------- --------------
2. (U) At 4:40 in the morning on December 13, a bomb rocked
the entrance of the offices of the radical, opposition
&Chorrord Ishkhanutyun8 (Fourth Estate) newspaper. Planted
outside the office, the bomb severely damaged the front doors
and resulted in minor damage to furniture inside the office.
Nobody was inside the building when the bomb went off, and
police confirmed that there were no injuries. The police
have launched an investigation.
3. (U) Shogher Matevosyan, the editor-in-chief of the
&Fourth Estate8, suggested the authorities had a hand in
the bombing, claiming her staff had received two recent
threats to tone down its aggressive caricatures of Prime
Minister Sargsian. She said the Prime Minister's well-known
bodyguard/driver/aide "Vatcho" had delivered one of these,
and another came from a controversial district mayor of
Yerevan's Erebuni district.
4. (SBU) The &Fourth Estate,8 which is published twice a
week, has a lowly circulation of 4,000, and is generally
untrustworthy in its reporting. It is a radical opposition
paper that has fervently backed the campaign of ex-President
Levon Ter-Petrossian. Matevosyan is one of the five
Ter-Petrossian activists who were detained by Yerevan police
)- and subsequently charged with resisting police orders --
in late October (reftel). In that case, police forcibly
intervened to break up a pro-Ter-Petrossian demonstration the
activists were holding to promote the ex-President,s first
public rally held October 26.
5. (U) Police have yet to issue a formal statement on the
bombing. Aram Harutyunyan, the Armenian government's Human
Rights Defender (Ombudsman),issued one the day of the
bombing, however. He told Armenian wire services that the
bombing threatened the establishment of freedom of expression
and pluralism in Armenia. &Democracy is based on
tolerance,8 he said, &and in this respect such (an)
intolerant attitude to media carries an extremely dangerous
tendency, which is indecent for the (sic) society striving
for democracy and legal state (sic).8
--------------
COMMENT
--------------
6. (C) The bombing of the &Fourth Estate8 office is
potentially an ominous harbinger of things to come as the
presidential election approaches and the political stakes
rise. Unfortunately, Armenia has a track record of
election-related violence, and bombings of opposition media
and political opponents have occurred before during close
races. Usually, these bombings go unsolved. While it seems
more likely than not that the bombing was what it first seems
-- intimidation from pro-regime forces -- we also do not rule
out the possibility that the Ter-Petrossian camp may itself
be responsible. Ter-Petrossian's team understands that the
government's relatively heavy-handed tactics against
Ter-Petrossian supporters have played right into opposition
hands. Such incidents reinforce the ex-president's chief
contention that the current authorities are a bunch of
criminal hooligans, while also subtly underlining that the
authorities fear Ter-Petrossian as an opponent. Whether this
bombing was actually a ham-handed move by thuggish
pro-governmental partisans, or an opposition gambit to look
like one, the likely outcome is the same: more credibility
and sympathy for Ter-Petrossian.
PENNINGTON