THE UGLY--AND UNUSUAL--SPECTER OF ANTI-SEMITISM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000214

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/12/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF KDEM AM
SUBJECT: THE UGLY--AND UNUSUAL--SPECTER OF ANTI-SEMITISM
SHOWS ITSELF IN OFFICIAL ARMENIAN PROPAGANDA

REF: A. YEREVAN 127

B. 07 YEREVAN 1479

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Classified By: CDA Joseph Pennington for reasons 1.4 b & d.


1. (C) SUMMARY: Armenia's presidential election period
bizarrely featured an unwelcome guest: anti-Semitism. A
government-affiliated national television network aired a
despicable, hour-long "documentary" of hate speech, that
labeled the leading opposition candidate a "Zionist Jew" in
cahoots with the Israeli intelligence service just days
before the election; thousands of DVDs of the same program
were distributed through university student organizations.
State television news broadcasts continued the theme during
the opposition's post-election rallies, provoking concern
that a new and sinister element of hatred has become a tool
of Armenian politics. While Armenia's small Jewish community
continues to insist that anti-Semitism is unheard of in the
country, GOAM efforts to denounce its opponents using
anti-Jewish propaganda are, at the least, disturbing.
Embassy complained to the government's anti-discrimination
czar -- only to have her resign from the government days
later, in protest over the larger political situation. END
SUMMARY.


2. (U) As reported Ref A, in the days prior to the February
19 election, a viciously anti-opposition DVD began to be
distributed primarily to youth groups and at universities.
The DVD attempted to portray former President and leading
opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP) in the most
crude and outlandish ways as, inter alia, an agent of the
Israeli intelligence services and a "Zionist Jew" by virtue
of his wife being Jewish. The documentary also mentioned by
name the Jewish Amcit Country Director for the EBRD in
Armenia as included in LTP's "Zionist plot." Surprisingly,
the DVD's "documentaries" were reportedly aired on Armenia's
second television channel, H2, on the evening of February 14,
where, according to Nielsen ratings, it was viewed by some
ten percent of Armenians watching television at the time. H2
is a privatized, formerly state-run network, whose owners are
close to ruling party leaders. Its editorial policy is
consistently pro-governmental. Among the basest of claims
the program made was a "factoid" that when the former
President had taken his oath of office in 2001--in front of
the Catholicos, no doubt--he had not rested his hand on an
Armenian bible but on a copy of the Talmud. (NOTE: Besides
the preposterousness of the ancient book shown in the video
being anything close to the 24-volume exposition on Jewish
law, the claim drew in elements from the notorious Russian
forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports
that the Talmud is the Jewish blueprint for world domination.
END NOTE.)


3. (U) This kind of brandishing LTP as Jewish and as an
Israeli agent continued during the post-election period when,
for 11 days, LTP's supporters gathered in Freedom Square in
the center of Yerevan. At first Haylur, the official
state-television news broadcast on public television (H1),
ignored the rally in the square and resorted to showing, at
length, small groups of pro-government supporters lambasting
the opposition. On the evening of February 27, however,
three days before the government would violently crackdown on
the protesters, Haylur devoted three minutes of its airtime
to covering the opposition protests by showing the same short
clip over and over of LTP joyously dancing at the rally
interspersed with close ups of an Israeli flag that had
appeared in the crowd. The piece featured no commentary and
was introduced by the news announcer mocking LTP and the
rally's participants, but was clearly designed to make LTP
look like a fool and reinforce the pro-government
anti-Semitic propaganda regarding the former President.
(NOTE: A number of international flags were waved at various
times during the rally -- Ukraine was especially prominent,
in a nod to the Orange Revolution -- but the televised
footage was carefully edited to show only the Israeli flag,
and at such an angle as to make the flag seem larger than
life, looming over dais speakers. END NOTE)


4. (C) In response to these disturbing shows of
anti-Semitism, Emboffs approached the director of the
Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs,
Hranush Kharatian, on February 28 to protest such messages
being aired on governmental and quasi-governmental networks.
Kharatian, a key Embassy contact in the preparation of the
annual International Religious Freedom report, expressed her
own disgust at the airing of such material and said she would
speak to the Chairman of the Board of National Radio and

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Television, with whom she had "many other things to discuss."
Following the GOAM's violent crackdown on opposition
demonstrators on the night of March 1-2, Kharatian quit her
position in protest of her government's actions. She relayed
to emboffs that she had never had the opportunity to meet
with the Chairman, but had included the "flagrant use of
anti-Semitic rhetoric on state-run television" as one of
reasons she cited in her letter of resignation.


5. (C) The small Armenian Jewish community has been cautious
in its reactions to this government propaganda. Not wanting
to appear to undermine the government, Community Chairwoman
Rimma Varzhapetian, whose husband works in the Armenian
Presidency, issued a statement against LTP and his supporters
for the "use of the Israeli flag" at their rallies. She
further emphasized that there is no--"and has never
been"--anti-Semitism in Armenia and that the Jewish Community
remains "firmly with the government." (NOTE: This mirrored
Varzhapetian's comments after a swastika had been found late
last year on Yerevan's Joint Jewish-Armenian Tragedy Memorial
(See Ref B). END NOTE.)


6. (C) COMMENT: Anti-Semitism per se is a foreign concept in
Armenia, a country that has had no history of such hatred.
Nevertheless, the use of such anti-Semitic rhetoric by
government elements, even though its context may be lost on
most Armenians, is disturbing. It is not inconceivable that
the Israeli flag at theQally was displayed there by a
government provocateur. Regardless, the GOAM cannot condone
such hateful imagery and still claim that anti-Semitism does
not exist in the country. END COMMENT.
PENNINGTON