The internal political crisis in Armenia was intensified following the presidential elections held on February 19, 2008. On February 29th, just hours before the bloody events were to unfold, Armenian TV. had been constantly bombarding its viewers with the footage of newly elected President Serzh Sargsyan and Artur Baghdasaryan, leader of the “Orinats Yerkir” (Rule of Law Party), congratulating each other with champagne toasts.

Serzh Sargsyan had just promised to give Artur Baghdasaryan, who came in 3rd in the elections with 17% of the votes, the job of Secretary of the National Security Council attached to the President’s Office as well as several portfolios in the new coalition government. Only ten months before President Robert Kocharyan had accused this politician of being a traitor.

The history of the scandal that led to President Kocharyan calling Baghdasaryan a traitor occurred before the May 2007 Parliamentary Elections. The pro-government newspaper “Gloss Armenia” had published the text of a secretly recorded conversation between Mr. Baghdasaryan and the English Ambassador to Armenia that took place in the Marco Polo restaurant. Days late President Kocharyan stated the following, “For me, this is a true display of treason. It’s even more outrageous because you have taken it upon yourself, just three months before the elections, to convince a foreign diplomat to do everything in his power in order that the elections are viewed in a negative light. And a one time traitor is capable of doing the same a 2nd, 3rd and 4th time.”

Mr. Baghdasaryan described this as an attempt at character assassination and aloudly proclaimed that, “This is just more of the repressive tactics periodically implemented by the authorities directed at the Rule Of Law Party”.

Artur Baghdasaryan’s Political Journey

Forty year-old Artur Baghdasaryan is a well-known political figure. He is also President of the Board of Trustees of the French University and the European Regional Academy in Armenia. 

At the age of 27 he was elected a Deputy to the National Assembly of Armenia. Until 1998 he displayed very strong pro-government tendencies. Furthermore, in 1996 he authored a book devoted to Levon Ter-Petrosyan who was Armenia’s President at the time. It was a special tribute and full of praise for the first President.

In 1998 Mr. Baghdasaryan became the leader of the newly formed “Orinats Yerkir” party (Rule of Law). During the 2003 presidential election campaign “Orinats Yerkir” endorsed the candidacy of Robert Kocharyan and the party came in second in the elections for the National Assembly held that same year. Baghdasaryan assumed the post of Speaker of the Parliament and “Orinats Yerkir” became a part of the coalition government. 

Artur Baghdasaryan is considered to be pro-western in terms of political outlook. He has been known to make such zealous statements during interviews with the foreign press that have required clarification after his return to Armenia. In a 2006 interview with the German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemaine”, Baghdasaryan noted that Armenia’s future lay not with Russia but with the European Union and NATO; a view quite divergent from the official government one. He also predicted severe tremors after the Armenian parliamentary elections of 2007 and the presidential elections of 2008 if, “If the degree of fraud we witnessed in the previous elections were to take place again.”

The reaction of the Armenian authorities was swift in coming. Even President Kocharyan chimed in with a crude appraisal. In the space of a few days, scores of businessmen who had joined the ranks of the “Orinats Party” before the elections, jumped ship.

Orinats Yerkir pulled out of the coalition government but those individuals who had been selected Ministers based on the party’s quota, left the party rather than loosing their official posts.

On May 29, 2006 Artur Baghdasaryan resigned from the post of National Assembly President and declared that they were siding with the opposition. But the opposition didn’t welcome him with open arms. Certain opposition forces and commentators noted that the regime had merely sent “Orinats Yerkir” on a mission to pull opposition votes away in the upcoming elections.

This party once part of the government, due to the image it assumed as being persecuted by the regime and by dint of its rhetorical skills, again wound up in the National Assembly after the 2007 elections. Later on Baghdasaryan proclaimed that if the opposition coalesced around one candidate in the upcoming 2008 presidential elections, he might be that person.

The situation completely changed with the return of Levon Ter-Petrosyan to the political arena. Initially, Baghdasaryan called on Ter-Petrosyan to unite with him. Later though, ruling out the possibility of a one-stage election, Baghdasaryan noted that, “the possibility of the uniting of oppositional forces will take place after the completion of the election’s first stage.”

Ter-Petrosyan made the following comment on the eve of the end of the presidential campaign, “A. Baghdasaryan is a sympathetic young man who has a constituency and has been able to create a structure around him. But today, he must understand one thing. Whatever he says or does and regardless of the number of votes he gets, those votes aren’t his. They will be added on to the votes garnered by the government’s candidate, Serzh Sargsyan. Today, Baghdasaryan is playing the role of a spoiler. If he doesn’t change his position, even though there is still hope that he will correctly evaluate the current situation and side with the people, he will betray the people. He will directly hitch his horse to the Sargsyan wagon.”

In response, the “Orinats Yerkir” leader turned around and made the first president the target of his criticism. Thus, a united oppositional front never emerged and Serzh Sargsyan commented on the fact by stating that he knew that would happen since, “he knew his ‘customers’ very well.” In the meantime the press had been saying for a long time that Artur Baghdasaryan was one of Sargsyan’s ‘customers’ as well.

According to the official vote count, Serzh Sargsyan won the February 19, 2008 presidential election in the first stage. Levon Ter-Petrosyan came in second and Artur Baghdasaryan came in third. Citing blatant election fraud and not accepting the decisions of the Central Election Commission, Ter-Petrosyan demanded a new round of elections while Artur Baghdasaryan demanded a ballot recount in over 200 polling stations. Ter-Petrosyan, declared a non-stop sit-down strike, rallied his supporters in the streets and petitioned the Constitutional Court. Baghdasaryan shied away from both the first and second actions.

Even during the election campaign the “Orinats Yerkir” leader described any talk of his possible uniting with Sargsyan as a ‘shameless lie’. But 10 days after the election their unity became a reality. On the occasion Baghdasaryan commented that, “Because, had we joined with Ter-Petrosyan we could have gone down the road of reckless adventurism and as a result the number of victims could have been much greater. On the other hand, we could have chosen the path of the country’s development. In the end we honorably shook the outstretched hand of Serzh Sargsyan offering us the chance to jointly govern the country and to assume the responsibility regarding the processes now taking place.”

On February 29th, those attending the public rally in Opera Square, upon hearing the news that Baghdasaryan had joined forces with Sargsyan, began to shout out, “Artur the traitor”. A few “Orinats Yerkir” activists present tore-up their party membership cards. It was expected that on the following day scores of “Orinats Yerkir” members would join the ranks of those at the Opera rally. That next day, however, went down in history as Bloody Saturday, March 1st.