Thomas Hammarberg arrives in Armenia; let it end well

The Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, arrived in Armenia, who will leave Armenia with a lot of information as the  schedule of his first meeting day in Yerevan was full. The significant point is “how will Mr. Hammarberg use the information”?

Yesterday morning, Hammarberg met with Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan and a number of Human Rights activists including: Artur Sakunts, Mikael Danielyan, Stepan Danielyan, Avetik Ishkhanyan, and Artak Kirakosy.  Hammarberg met with the human rights activists twice; the second meeting was devoted exclusively to military issues.

At the first meeting, the human rights activists raised several questions including: unresolved cases of murders during the March events, media related issues, particularly violations against journalists, as well as issues concerning political prisoners. The human rights activists spoke about the involvement of the armed forces in the March events and emphasized that it had not been addressed by the Council of Europe as of this date. They also mentioned that 3 years have passed since the March events and even though today’s situation cannot be compared with that of March 1st,  the internal political tension has not weakened and one of the main reasons for this is the existence of political prisoners and the unresolved cases of murders on March 1. The human rights activists talked about freedom of assembly and specially stressed that the symbolic “Liberty Square” remains closed for the opposition.  Also, the 1609 Armenian Resolution, adopted by PACE remains unsatisfied. 

During the meeting with the human rights activists, a protest action was held by the “Defense Committee for Political Prisoners” near the "Marriott" Hotel where Hammarberg was staying. Thousands of protest participants were demanding the release of political prisoners. Later the protest was followed by a march. Through a representative from the Council of Europe Office, the participants of the march handed Hammarberg a letter from former political prisoners. “Immediately after the March 1, 2008 bloody slaughters and mass arrests of the political opposition were carried out by governmental representatives in what was called a "political vendetta". The international community, particularly in the PACE resolutions and the EU president’s statements, considered it political persecution and demanded their immediate release”.

“We are well aware, and we have witnessed specifically your sincere efforts in this respect. Unfortunately, those efforts have not yielded solutions since there are still political prisoners in Armenia today.  Therefore we urge you to adopt an immediate release of our fellow political prisoners by using the influence and privileges of the UN Human Rights Commissioner to liberate our emotional sufferings, keep COE member Armenia from the disgrace of having political prisoners, and prevent Europe from tolerating it”.  This is stated in the letter by political prisoners and signed by 42 people.

Yesterday, Thomas Hammarberg met with the heads of “A1 +”and with “Gala” TV Companies after which the Human Rights Commissioner once again hosted the human rights activists.

Hammarberg was very interested in the current issues existing in the military: corruption, high mortality rate, violence, and non-constitutional relationships. In the evening, Thomas Hammarberg met with the first President, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, where the release of political prisoners, recognition of March 1 murders, the involvement of the armed forces in the March events, and issues regarding the press and freedom of assembly were discussed. Later Hammarberg met with relatives of the slaughtered victims. Today Hammarberg will meet with the relatives of political prisoners, as well as visit "Artik" penitentiary to meet with political prisoner, Nikol Pashinyan.

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