Calling upon ELDR’s member parties to exercise their influence on their respective governments, ANM asks for the unconditional release of the 14 prisoners that continue to be detained in Armenian jails.

ELDR President Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck said: “Armenia, being a member of the Council of Europe, should immediately release all political prisoners as freedom of speech and freedom of opinion are central values of the Council of Europe. Keeping people in prison for political reasons and denying them the right to due process of law is contrary to the basic obligations of member states of the Council of Europe and will certainly hinder the process of rapprochement between Armenia and the European Union.”

* ANM was the driving force in the protests against falsifications of the presidential election of 2008, rallying up to 300.000 protesters in the center of Yerevan. According to the numbers published by the Armenian government, Ter-Petrossian had 21.5% of the vote while the candidate of the governing party, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsian won by 52%. The results of the election were contested by the opposition. OSCE‘s final report on the election, published on May 30 2008, also raises some very serious doubts.

Peaceful protests were followed by clashes with the police, 10 people died, many protesters were arrested and about 150 people went to jail. Most of them have been released under pressure from the EU, but some 14 people are still in jail. Since 2008, around twenty opposition parties, including ANM, have gathered in the Armenian National Congress to fight for free and fair elections. Levon Ter-Petrossian is heading this movement.

APPEAL

TO THE LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIC AND REFORM PARTY OF EUROPE

17 July, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

The Armenian National Movement is appealing to you with a very important request.

The presidential elections of 19 February, 2008 in Armenia were accompanied by massive violations

of the Constitution and the law, use of violence, and fraud. The popular protest against it was

manifested by daily rallies and marches of hundreds of thousands of people. The authorities resorted

to lethal force on 1 March, 2008 to crush that protest drawing in the armed forces. Ten individuals

were killed. A state of emergence was declared illegally and a massive campaign of arrests ensued.

150 leaders and activists of the opposition wound up in prison as a result. 14 of them, including

members of the Armenian National Movement, are still deprived in prison. It is not just the Armenian

society’s belief that the persecution and the arrests of opposition activists were politically motivated.

In the period between 1 March, 2008 and now, more than a dozen documents have been published

by authoritative international organizations, such as the Presidency of the EU, the PACE, the FIDH,

which have advised or demanded that the Armenian authorities release the political prisoners. Many

of these documents have not shied away from using the term “political prisoner,” and some have just

used its definition – “persons deprived of their liberty for their political views.” During the congress of

FIDH, which took place in Yerevan on 6 April, 300 delegates described those individuals as political

prisoners demanding their immediate release. These individuals have been recognized as political

prisoners in the Annual Human Rights Report of the US State Department. The US Secretary of

State Hillary Clinton also demanded their release during her recent visit to Yerevan.

The existence of political prisoners in a member-state of the European Council is a scandal not just

for our country, but for Europe. We believe that their release should become a matter of honor

especially for the liberal-democratic parties of Europe. Hence we appeal to you to exercise your

influence both with your governments and with the relevant international organizations to help the

cause of their release. That will make the participation of the Armenian National Movement in the

family of European liberals particularly meaningful, and will also increase the respect for liberal values

and principles in the eyes of the Armenian society.

We ask you to send this appeal to all the parties that comprise the European Liberal-Democratic and

Reform Party.

The appeal has been approved unanimously by 600 delegates during the 16th Congress of the

Armenian National Congress.