March 1st

March 1^st marks the one-year anniversary of one of the great political crimes of modern Armenian history – the government slaughter of opposition demonstrators in the streets of Yerevan.

Armenia is a republic. It has a parliament, a prime minister, and a president. It even has elections. But it is not a democracy. It is a place where journalists are beaten, including those from the Voice of America. It is a country where judges decide cases based on political directives, not the law.  It is a nation ruled by an unelected elite who rig elections and kill protesters.  

In February 2008, presidential elections were held in Armenia. The democratic opposition coalesced around the charismatic Levon Ter-Petrosyan. During the campaign, the oligarchs who rule Armeia charged that Ter-Petrosyan was an agent of a Jewish and Masonic conspiracy to subjugate Armenia.

Of course, the oligarchs won the election.  They rigged it.  Their candidate, Serzh Sargysan, became Armenia’s next President.  His victory was confirmed by the government’s own Ministry of Fraudulent Government Numbers.

Election fraud has brought down a number of crooked governments in recent years.  The Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan all began as protests against rigged elections.  As the protests grew in size, so did the pressure on the crooked governments.  Eventually, they peacefully collapsed.

Armenia’s fraudulent presidential election was met with protest.  Gathering in ever increasing strength and concentrating in an area near the Opera House that they renamed Liberty Square, the demonstrators pressed their demand for a fair and democratic presidential election.  One would assume that calling for a democratic election in the Republic of Armenia would be legal, even a civic duty.

But the vote stealing oligarchs would brook no insolence.  Fearful of an election, and dreading the possibility of a color revolution, the oligarch  declared a national emergency on March 1st, 2008.  Banned now were the opposition’s demonstrations.  To enforce the ban, the police, backed by the military’s special forces, confronted, then attacked the demonstrators.  The Minister of Fraudulent Numbers reported that, officially, ten people were killed in the ensuing violence.  Unofficial eyewitness report a higher death toll.

The government arrested many people for participating in the protest. It tortured many of those that were arrested. It detained people without a timely trial in violation of the law.  In fact, today, there are still approximately 50 individuals who are still languishing behind bars for this protest.  Ironically, no one in the government was even charged with the crime of killing civilians protesing against the oligarchs’ rigged election.

Last December, seven opposition leaders, including a former foreign minister, were arrested  in connection with the events of March 1, 2008. The judge assigned to hear the case has delayed the trial while he makes a spectacle of himself on whether the defendants, including a former foreign minister, are sufficiently respectful to him.

How much respect is due a judge who disgraces himself by deciding a case not on the facts and law, but as instructed by the unelected oligarchs?

Armenians are a tough, patient, and enduring people. They have survived the worst atrocities of the 20^th Century. Though their country is now ruled by a powerful clique of corrupt oligarchs, the force of history marches toward freedom.  Democracy will in prevail inexorably.  Someday, in the not too distant future, the area in front of the Opera House in Yerevan will be renamed Freedom Square, and Armenia’s democratically elected government will commemorate the sacrifice of those who were killed on March 1, 2008 with a Freedom Square memorial.