GOAM-OPPOSITION CLASHES IN CENTRAL YEREVAN ESCALATE

UNCLAS YEREVAN 000677

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL AND EUR/CARC

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL AM
SUBJECT: GOAM-OPPOSITION CLASHES IN CENTRAL YEREVAN ESCALATE

REF: YEREVAN 668


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The confrontations between police and opposition
protesters on Yerevan's Northern Avenue that began the morning of
August 26 (reftel) escalated in the afternoon and throughout the
following day. Police forcibly removed and detained some protesters
who had been camped there for weeks collecting signatures on
petitions calling for new elections and for the International
Criminal Court indictment of former President Kocharian. This
action in turn spawned an increased activist presence on the
pedestrian mall that at one point even included former First Lady
Ludmila Ter-Petrossian. These confrontations have breathed new life
into the opposition protests that had waned during the dog days of
summer, and have come at a time when the GOAM wants to put on its
best face in the run-up to an expected September 6 visit by Turkey's
President Gul. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) According to media reports, riot police detained six
opposition members on the afternoon of August 26, after discovering
that pro-Ter-Petrossian posters they had torn down and removed
earlier in the day had reemerged as graffiti painted on the
sidewalk. The detentions occurred after police had forcibly removed
the tables protesters were using to garner signatures for their
petition campaigns. Despite strikers' claims that they had not
painted the graffiti, the police demanded it be cleaned before they
would release the detainees. According to ARAVOT newspaper, one of
the six was a minor whom police released immediately, while the
others were taken to Police headquarters and released later in the
evening.


3. (SBU) Opposition spokesperson Levon Zurabian told emboffs that
the increased instances of police violence towards the strikers
"shows that the authorities are intimidated by them and shows their
weakness" in advance of the planned but unauthorized September 5
rally. Zurabian said that the Police had no legal grounds for
confiscating the posters or for the detentions.


4. (U) A1 Plus reports that along with the threat to disperse
protesters and their belongings by force, Police had issued the
strikers a deadline of 9:00 am, August 27, to remove their blankets
and mats from Northern Avenue. After an all-night vigil attended by
many protesters, including former First Lady Ludmila Ter-Petrossian,
the opposition activists grudgingly complied, noting publicly that
they saw police action as a violation of their constitutional rights
and claiming that the police wanted to create conditions under which
they would be unable to continue their strike.


5. (U) In a previous Northern Avenue incident, a 17-year-old
opposition supporter reportedly was stabbed and wounded in the arm
by a government loyalist late Monday. David Kiramijian described
his attacker as an elderly man who shouted abuse at the protesters.
"I just told him that there are women and children here and he
should stop swearing," Kiramijian told RFE/RL. "He then came up to
me, swearing, and stabbed me." Kiramijian was immediately taken to
the hospital where he received stitches for his wound. The Armenian
police said in a statement the next day that his presumed attacker,
identified as Volodya Manukian, had been detained for questioning
and then had been set free pending further investigation.


6. (SBU) COMMENT: If anything, police actions over recent days have
begun to breathe new life into the Northern Avenue protest campaign,
which had been flagging under the hot summer sun and amidst the fuel
and supply worries associated with the war in Georgia. We see this
as the GOAM's attempt to clean up pesky protesters and put on its
best face in advance of the September 6 Turkey-Armenia World
Cup-qualifying football match, to which President Sargsian has
invited his Turkish counterpart.

PENNINGTON