InternationalARF: Javakhk activists not ARF members
Published: Thursday February 05, 2009
Washington - Sarkis Hakobjanian and Grigor Minasian, arrested last month in Georgia's Armenian-populated Javakhk province, are not members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), the party's Yerevan spokesperson Giro Manoyan told the Armenian Reporter this week.
"The ARF does not have organizational structures in [Samtskhe-Javakheti] and that means there are no ARF members there; neither of those arrested is an ARF member," said Mr. Manoyan.
This newspaper identified the two individuals arrested on espionage, weapons, and conspiracy charges as ARF members, citing published media reports.
Mr. Manoyan nevertheless criticized the arrests as politically motivated. He suggested they were an attempt to divert public attention away from the Georgian government's domestic problems - including the opposition's increasingly vocal calls for Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation - and an effort to "intimidate Javakhk circles seeking to defend their constitutional rights."
"Just before the August war [in South Ossetia], a similar scenario was played out in Javakhk, with shootings, police killings, and arrests [of Vahagn Chakhalian and his relatives and associates]," Mr. Manoyan recalled. "I believe the expectation then was to provoke a violent reaction, thus giving [the Georgian government] a pretext to crush the local people's will. It is very much possible that there will be further arrests in the region."
Mr. Saakahvili has repeatedly dismissed opposition calls for early elections. This week, he appointed Nika Gilauri as Georgia's fourth prime minister in fourteen months.
Mr. Gilauri, 33, has been one of the longest-serving cabinet officials since Mr. Saakashvili took office in 2004, having held energy and finance portfolios. Mr. Gilauri replaced Grigor Mgaloblishvili, 35, who cited health reasons for his departure. Opposition leaders alleged the health problems arose after Mr. Saakashvili personally assaulted his prime minister.
On February 5, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) cited a lawyer for the two arrested men as saying the charges stemmed with Mr. Minasian’s and Mr. Hakobjanian’s interaction with individuals believed to be Russian intelligence operatives.
