Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09YEREVAN696
2009-10-01 14:23:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Yerevan
Cable title:
ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENT STRIPS SEATS OF OPPOSITION MPS
how-toVZCZCXRO9090 RR RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR DE RUEHYE #0696 2741423 ZNY CCCCC ZZH R 011423Z OCT 09 FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9557 INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE RUEHFRS/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0014 RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 000696
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KJUS AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENT STRIPS SEATS OF OPPOSITION MPS
Classified By: AMB Marie L. Yovanovitch, reasons 1.4 (b,d).
C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 000696
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KJUS AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENT STRIPS SEATS OF OPPOSITION MPS
Classified By: AMB Marie L. Yovanovitch, reasons 1.4 (b,d).
1. (SBU) On September 17, Hovik Abrahamian, Speaker of
Armenia's National Assembly (parliament),stripped the
parliamentary seats of opposition MPs Hakob Hakobian, Miasnik
Malkhasian, and Sasun Mikaelian, invoking a clause in
Armenia's constitution that MPs shall automatically lose
their seats if they are &sentenced to imprisonment.8 All
three received prison sentences in late June, after being
kept in detention over 15 months on charges of attempting to
stage a coup and organizing mass disorders. Authorities
arrested the MPs in early March 2008, several days after
then-President Robert Kocharian imposed a state of emergency
in response to violent post-election clashes between
opposition protesters and security forces that resulted in
the deaths of eight civilians and two policemen. The MPs'
high-profile arrest -- being led into parliament in chains --
came after they had publicly sided with presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian (Armenia's first president) in
his dispute of the February 2008 presidential election
results.
2. (SBU) Two of the MPs -- Hakobian and Malkhasian -- were
amnestied and released on June 22, 2009 after the parliament
approved an amnesty proposed by President Serzh Sargsian
which applied to some of the opposition supporters jailed
after the post-election violence. But the celebrated
Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran MP Sasun Mikaelian was not
amnestied, due to the length of his sentence and the articles
under which he was charged. The Central Electoral Commission
subsequently called for new elections in Hakobian's and
Mikaelian's single-mandate districts. Meanwhile, the CEC
gave Malkhasian's proportional representation seat to the
Republican Party of Armenia candidate next on the list of the
RPA,s party list. The elections for the two vacated seats
will be held December 6.
3. (C) According to media reports, Hakobian intends to run in
the December 6 election to regain his seat. Local media has
also has reported that the independent candidate Koryun
Nahapetian intends to contest Hakobian's vacated seat.
Nahapetian is reportedly an in-law of the notorious Armenian
oligarch, Samvel Aleksanian, aka "Lfik Samo," a perennial
vote falsifier and ally of the authorities. Notably,
Hakobian's seat is located in the equally notorious
Malatia-Sebastia district in Yerevan, long considered to be
Aleksanian's personal fiefdom. It was this district that
witnessed widespread intimidation, fraud, and vote count
irregularities in the May 31 mayoral election in Yerevan.
Approximately all five of those convicted for fraud following
the election were subsequently -- and quickly -- released
based on the terms of the amnesty. In contrast, an election
observer from a prominent human rights NGO remains in jail,
three months after his arrest for allegedly assaulting a
police officer; the arrest followed the activist's filing of
a complaint alleging vote fraud in Malatia-Sebastia.
4. (C) COMMENT: The authorities' stripping of seats from the
pro-opposition MPs was long expected. The arrests of
Hakobian and Mikaelian were widely interpreted at the time as
a punitive measure taken by the authorities to make an
example of them; until siding with Ter-Petrossian after the
disputed presidential election, both MPs were members of the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia led by the eventual
winner, Serzh Sargsian. Parliament could not strip the seats
until the MPs were convicted -- a process delayed by the
lengthy detention and show trial of the MPs, which eventually
ended soon after the parliament approved the president's
proposed amnesty on June 19. Parliament then entered its
summer recess, and reconvened only on September 15, which is
when the Speaker proceeded to strip the MPs of their seats.
The December 6 by-election provides yet another opportunity
for the authorities to show improvement on democratization.
Under the circumstances, however, there seems little
likelihood that the by-election will be much different from
the long series of dubious polls we have seen in Armenia
since its independence.
PENNINGTON
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KJUS AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENT STRIPS SEATS OF OPPOSITION MPS
Classified By: AMB Marie L. Yovanovitch, reasons 1.4 (b,d).
1. (SBU) On September 17, Hovik Abrahamian, Speaker of
Armenia's National Assembly (parliament),stripped the
parliamentary seats of opposition MPs Hakob Hakobian, Miasnik
Malkhasian, and Sasun Mikaelian, invoking a clause in
Armenia's constitution that MPs shall automatically lose
their seats if they are &sentenced to imprisonment.8 All
three received prison sentences in late June, after being
kept in detention over 15 months on charges of attempting to
stage a coup and organizing mass disorders. Authorities
arrested the MPs in early March 2008, several days after
then-President Robert Kocharian imposed a state of emergency
in response to violent post-election clashes between
opposition protesters and security forces that resulted in
the deaths of eight civilians and two policemen. The MPs'
high-profile arrest -- being led into parliament in chains --
came after they had publicly sided with presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian (Armenia's first president) in
his dispute of the February 2008 presidential election
results.
2. (SBU) Two of the MPs -- Hakobian and Malkhasian -- were
amnestied and released on June 22, 2009 after the parliament
approved an amnesty proposed by President Serzh Sargsian
which applied to some of the opposition supporters jailed
after the post-election violence. But the celebrated
Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran MP Sasun Mikaelian was not
amnestied, due to the length of his sentence and the articles
under which he was charged. The Central Electoral Commission
subsequently called for new elections in Hakobian's and
Mikaelian's single-mandate districts. Meanwhile, the CEC
gave Malkhasian's proportional representation seat to the
Republican Party of Armenia candidate next on the list of the
RPA,s party list. The elections for the two vacated seats
will be held December 6.
3. (C) According to media reports, Hakobian intends to run in
the December 6 election to regain his seat. Local media has
also has reported that the independent candidate Koryun
Nahapetian intends to contest Hakobian's vacated seat.
Nahapetian is reportedly an in-law of the notorious Armenian
oligarch, Samvel Aleksanian, aka "Lfik Samo," a perennial
vote falsifier and ally of the authorities. Notably,
Hakobian's seat is located in the equally notorious
Malatia-Sebastia district in Yerevan, long considered to be
Aleksanian's personal fiefdom. It was this district that
witnessed widespread intimidation, fraud, and vote count
irregularities in the May 31 mayoral election in Yerevan.
Approximately all five of those convicted for fraud following
the election were subsequently -- and quickly -- released
based on the terms of the amnesty. In contrast, an election
observer from a prominent human rights NGO remains in jail,
three months after his arrest for allegedly assaulting a
police officer; the arrest followed the activist's filing of
a complaint alleging vote fraud in Malatia-Sebastia.
4. (C) COMMENT: The authorities' stripping of seats from the
pro-opposition MPs was long expected. The arrests of
Hakobian and Mikaelian were widely interpreted at the time as
a punitive measure taken by the authorities to make an
example of them; until siding with Ter-Petrossian after the
disputed presidential election, both MPs were members of the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia led by the eventual
winner, Serzh Sargsian. Parliament could not strip the seats
until the MPs were convicted -- a process delayed by the
lengthy detention and show trial of the MPs, which eventually
ended soon after the parliament approved the president's
proposed amnesty on June 19. Parliament then entered its
summer recess, and reconvened only on September 15, which is
when the Speaker proceeded to strip the MPs of their seats.
The December 6 by-election provides yet another opportunity
for the authorities to show improvement on democratization.
Under the circumstances, however, there seems little
likelihood that the by-election will be much different from
the long series of dubious polls we have seen in Armenia
since its independence.
PENNINGTON