JOURNALIST ATTACKED AS RIVALRIES HEAT UP WITHIN RULING

UNCLAS YEREVAN 000322 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHU PGOV PREL AM SUBJECT: JOURNALIST ATTACKED AS RIVALRIES HEAT UP WITHIN RULING CIRCLES Ref: Yerevan 302 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Nver Mnatsakanian, a prominent television journalist, has become the latest victim in a string of violent attacks on Armenian journalists, which are largely going unsolved. Many suspect Mnatsakanian might have been targeted as a reprisal for airing an unusually revealing interview of the unpolished Prosperous Armenia party leader, an indication of sharpening election rivalry among the various ruling coalition factions. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Mnatsakanian, who anchors news programs and hosts daily talk shows on the private (but generally pro-governmental) Shant TV, was attacked by unknown men as he returned home on the night of May ¶6. Mnatsakanian suffered injuries to his head, foot and hand, and required treatment in a nearby hospital. "I parked the car in the garage and was on my way home when I noticed them standing at the corner of the building. They were standing in front of each other, whispering. Then suddenly they turned around and hit me and threw me to the ground. My neighbors came to the rescue, and the assailants left the scene", Mnatsakanian told reporters after the attack. ¶3. (SBU) Armenian police opened a criminal investigation under an article of the Criminal Code that deals with assaults resulting in "bodily injuries of medium severity." A police investigator visited and questioned Mnatsakanian on Thursday morning. ¶4. (SBU) Mnatsakanian is at least the third Armenian journalist known to have been assaulted this year (reftel). Several such incidents were reported last year. Virtually none of those cases have been solved by the police. ¶5. (SBU) While linking the attack with his overall professional activities, Mnatsakanian did not think that it had a direct connection with his recent programs. "I can't draw such conclusions," he said. One of those programs, aired earlier this week, featured pollster Aharon Adibekian, who caused a stir by predicting that Armenia's second largest governing party, Prosperous Armenia, (led by oligarch Gagik Tsarukian),will fare poorly in the upcoming mayoral elections in Yerevan. Tsarukian appeared on the show the next evening to angrily rebut the pro-government pollster's claims. ¶6. (SBU) The most widespread local view is that the assault might have been a reprisal for Mnatsakanian's interview with Tsarukisn, which was regarded as an embarrassment for Tsarukian. More accustomed to short "softball" interviews, the relatively poorly educated and politically inexperienced Tsarukian performed badly in the face of Mnastakanian's probing questions about Armenian election practices. Asked about alleged vote-buying and the abuse of "administrative resources" for electoral advantage by ruling coalition parties, Tsarukian declared that such things are completely normal, not only in Armenia, but all over the world, including America and Russia. He said the ruling Republicans will benefit most from the use of administrative resources because they have access to them, a situation that he also called "normal." "Those amounts are envisaged in the state budget for those purposes, so it's normal," he said. ¶6. (U) Tsarukian also commented that the population would benefit if elections were held more often, because "then they would have their elevators fixed, asphalt laid and playgrounds built." Apart from the content, observers remarked that Tsarukian's comments were liberally laced with coarse "street language" and illiterate phrasings, a setback to Tsarukian's recent efforts to project a more polished public persona. (NOTE: "Street language" in this case does not mean obscenities, but simply a low-brow style of phrasing and word choice. Armenian language makes a sharper distinction than does English between polite or literary language -- as spoken by the middle-class, and which is normally the language of public discourse -- and low-class "street language." Tsarukian, who arose from a distinctly working class background, lacks facility with literary Armenian. END NOTE) ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: This latest incident -- as well as the television interview -- suggests that the election season has brought to the fore sharp intramural struggles for dominance within the ruling coalition. In that sense, this latest attack differs from other recent attacks on media figures, which have seemed more like pro-governmental thugs going after critical or opposition-linked media figures. YOVANOVITCH