Yesterday the deputy-chair of Republican Party of Armenia Razmik Zohrabyan said that the turn of Nicol Pashinyan and Sasun Mikaealyan will also come for release.
The administration of a prison located near the central Armenian town of Sevan decided two days ago to recommend the early release of its most famous inmate, Aram Bareghamyan. Bareghamyan headed a regional chapter of a major political party aligned with the main opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) before being arrested in the wake of the disputed presidential ballot. He was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly assaulting a police officer during the March 2008 unrest in Yerevan. Arsen Babayan, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry department managing Armenia’s prisons, told the journalists that the prison administration’s recommendation will be considered by April 5 by a government commission dealing with parole applications. And indeed Bareghamyan will be released by the April 8 rally or as the last time we witnessed on the very day of the rally. And this decision of release will be the third within the last two weeks. Let us remember that on the March 17 rally political prisoners Roman Mnatsakanyan and Harutyun Urutyan were released. And yesterday’s statement of Zohrabyan comes to prove that the government seemingly decided to release all the political prisoners. It is hard to say why the government has decided to get rid of the political prisoners one by one. Perhaps the last statement of the PACE co-rapporteurs John Prescott and Axel Fischer also had to play a role in the government’s decision. Let us recall that the PACE in its statement urged the Armenian authorities to free all oppositionists who were controversially jailed after the 2008 election and remain behind bars. By the way, they were still in Armenia when the rally took place and several political prisoners were released. Before leaving Armenia the co-rapporteurs said the following, “The consequences of the post-election clashes of 2008 and the existence of 10 political prisoners of Armenia continue poisoning the political environment of Armenia.” The co-rapporteurs also urged the Armenian government to demonstrate political will and resolve these issues with no further delay. Perhaps now the Armenian government is trying to demonstrate a political will. This “goodwill” of the government could have resulted from the tough social-economic conditions and the growing public discontent. This year the rallies of the ANC gather more people that the ones of the previous year. And this happens in the case when the government is trying to do everything to block these rallies by closing roads, intimidating people or trying to persuade people not to participate in those. At any rate the environment of discontent grows in the country and it for sure has its influence on the behavior of the government in relation to the opposition. And maybe besides the statements of the government on conducting reforms they also try to show certain goodwill to the opposition as well. And this really can be considered goodwill because the government has been really cruel to the political prisoners with its attitude. “I don’t have exact information but think that Mikaelyan’s day will come too. I don’t see any problem with that. The government doesn’t show any subjective opinion to who the prisoner is – Mikaelyan or Bareghamyan. Their sentences are different,” said Zohrabyan. “If the potential for forming a new political force is available, it is all right. However, if this tendency goes on, each citizen of small Armenia will soon be a member of several political forces,” Zohrabyan added. Indeed the government doesn’t make statements before showing discrimination or cruelty. They don’t confess it in the future either. But in regard of Mikaelyan they showed maximum cruelty and discrimination. He was one of the few political prisoners, whose sentence is bigger than 5 years. It is defined 8 years. That is the reason why amnesty wasn’t applied to him. They say that Serzh Sargsyan is revenging on Mikaelyan for his behavior as they were very close in the past. The president thinks that by transforming to the opposition Mikaelyan has betrayed him. Asked who is to be punished for the post-election clashes of March 1, 2008, Razmik Zohrabyan said, "I blame both the authorities and the opposition. Both sides made mistakes which need to be corrected today. I think the president is above from such concerns. For the president everyone is a citizen. If they violated a law then certain approach will be showed. So there is no special approach. When there was amnesty there was no discrimination, was there?” says Zohrabyan. Let us add another case of discriminative approach. The 2009 amnesty should have covered Mnatsakanyan too as he was sentenced based in 225 article of the criminal code but he was released only on March 17. So there are several cases like this. And if the government really doesn’t sshow discrimination then Pashinyan could also go on parole, the deadline of which is June 1 and who was also maximally discriminated.