Prosperous Armenia Party member Iveta Tonoyan outlined the reasons and objectives behind establishing the Public Council for the Defense of Tsarukyan and Other Political Prisoners, saying it includes representatives of the opposition political field, human rights advocates, public figures, lawyers, and representatives of the arts and culture sectors.
“Two months ago, Gagik Tsarukyan was remanded in custody without any grounds, and the processes that followed defied both political and legal logic,” she said, Panorama.am reported.
She said there had been significant public support during this period, after which the idea emerged to create a working body for the protection of rights that would operate in a more systematic and structured manner.
Tonoyan recalled that the day after the council was formed, Gagik Tsarukyan issued a message thanking those behind the initiative and calling on them to address the protection of the rights of all political prisoners, as well as captives held in Baku.
“In our republic, which has proclaimed itself a bastion of democracy, human rights protection has become the number one area itself in need of protection,” Tonoyan said.
“Everyone understands that the legal component in the criminal cases brought against opposition figures who have been detained, are being detained or will be detained is zero, and what we are dealing with here is exclusively political revenge,” she said.
Tonoyan referred to cases brought against Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukyan, Strong Armenia chairman Samvel Karapetyan and Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan. She added that the “political reprisal” against Gagik Tsarukyan began after, as she alleged, the Central Electoral Commission stole about 60,000 votes cast for Prosperous Armenia.
Iveta Tonoyan also said justice would be restored and Tsarukyan’s reputation would be restored as well.
Elinar Vardanyan, a member of the council defending Gagik Tsarukyan, claimed that the restriction of Tsarukyan’s liberty had been carried out in an inhumane manner and that, if the European Court of Human Rights addressed the issue, it would rule against Armenia, «Sputnik Armenia» reported.
“A person opens the doors of his home to people who arrive with a search warrant, but they force him to the ground in order to take him in and arrest him. At the same time, we see that the authorities are constantly engaged in actions aimed at diminishing Gagik Tsarukyan’s good reputation and dignity through their speeches and so on,” Vardanyan said.
The former National Assembly lawmaker also addressed actions involving Tsarukyan’s property. In her assessment, the ongoing process concerning property rights is not only Armenia’s domestic problem but also affects the country’s reputation. Vardanyan said the same considerations apply to the cases of Samvel Karapetyan and Robert Kocharyan, which, in her view, point to a particular pattern of conduct adopted by the authorities. She claimed that a repressive mechanism is operating in Armenia and gaining momentum.
Council member and Country to Live party co-founder Mane Tandilyan, in turn, said that, in her assessment, values are being violated today that have given people with different political views reason to unite. According to her, there is a larger and more important issue, and remaining silent now means agreeing with and allowing such cases to recur.
“This distorted populism and distorted democracy being presented to us was supposedly meant to protect such values [human rights and others]. Freedom of speech and people’s freedom to act seemingly form part of the values of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, yet today we see silence, which is unacceptable,” Tandilyan said.
Tandilyan stressed that their campaign is also aimed at protecting the rights of Armenian captives held in Baku, whom she described as not only political prisoners but also people persecuted because of their ethnicity and imprisoned for defending their homeland.
Politician and council member Bagrat Yesayan said that, in his assessment, political persecution by the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities is being carried out in a synchronized manner.
“It is no coincidence that there was so much discussion about the European practice of pretending to be deaf, blind and mute. If any persecution or action with even a hint of political motivation had been undertaken by the previous authorities, various European ambassadors, embassies and human rights organizations would have loudly pounded on the doors of the authorities of the time,” he said.
Yesayan expressed the view that Europe’s ruling elites have sacrificed European values for geopolitical interests.
Tsarukyan was detained on July 6 and remanded in custody the following day. Minutes after the detention order was issued, Armenia’s Investigative Committee released footage of his arrest. The video showed National Security Service officers entering his mansion, with seven or eight people forcing the 69-year-old businessman to the ground before leading him away in handcuffs.
Tsarukyan and another person are accused of aiding fraud and aiding money laundering. Another case was opened over the alleged illegal hunting of a wild animal or bird. As part of that case, 190 taxidermied animals and birds, as well as three lions and one tiger, were seized from Tsarukyan’s home. They were recognized as physical evidence and transferred to Yerevan Zoo.
