Despite ill health and the protestations of relatives, Tigran Baghdasaryan declared that he was going on hunger strike on April 2nd. The painter has been under arrest as of March 1st and is being held at the Nubarashen detention facility.

58 year-old Mr. Baghdasaryan is a member of the ROA Painters’ Union and his works are on display in many galleries. While most of his paintings depict the natural world he also has created a number of abstract canvasses. Some of his paintings have been purchased by famous collectors and are displayed at prominent exhibitions in Greece, Italy, Russia, the USA and elsewhere.

Davit, the artist’s son, says that, “My father loves freedom and can’t even paint what the customer has requested. His brush always paints what he sees and feels. That’s probably why only a few of his paintings sell or don’t sell at all. In the end, he always strives to be free and unencumbered.”

Mr. Baghdasaryan was an activist in the pan-Armenian movement that began in 1988. Before the formation of the regular army, he and his friends departed for Tavush where they participated in battles for the defense of the border region. 

His son says that his father continuously dreamed of seeing a democratic Armenia and always struggled against injustice, from reprimanding someone cutting in the line at the store checkout to participating in a variety of social protests. 

During the February 2008 presidential elections Mr. Baghdasaryan headed up one of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign offices in the Arabkir neighborhood in Yerevan and served as a proxy for the first president. He attended the oppositional rallies and spent several nights camping out at Freedom Square after February 20th. 

Mr. Baghdasaryan was in Freedom Square on the morning of March 1st when the authorities used physical force to disperse the assembled crowd.

David recollects that, “My mother spoke to him around 4 p.m. that morning and he said everything was OK. His voice sounded somewhat strange during the next phone conversation at 8 a.m., but he said that he was on the way home.”

The artist didn’t make it home that day. Several hours later worried relatives came across his name in a list of the missing posted on one of the websites. It was only later that day at 11:30 p.m. that the family received a call from the Shahumyan Police Station stating that Mr. Baghdasaryan was in their custody.

Mr. Baghdasaryan has testified that after he was arrested at the intersection of Abovyan and Pushkin Streets he was shoved into a police car and beaten with a rubber baton to the head. Forensic doctors declared that his wounds weren’t of a serious nature.

The artist has been charged with two Articles of the ROA Criminal Code widely utilized subsequent to the presidential elections. The first is Article 316 (Use of physical force against a representative of the state) and the second is Article 225.1 (Organizing and staging of public events violating public order). 

Davit declares, “This is ridiculous. My father attended the rallies as a free citizen of the ROA. He didn’t even speak from the podium. What’s also crazy is the contention that he resisted the police. Any one who knows my father will certify that this contention is out of the question. In addition, those who arrested him were masked forces from a special detachment. I find it very hard to believe that my father could resist them in the slightest.”

Ara Zakaryan, the artist’s lawyer is convinced that, “Tigran Baghdasaryan is a political prisoner. The only reason that he is being criminally charged is due to the fact that he was an election proxy for Levon Ter-Petrosyan.” Mr. Zakaryan also notes that the Court for the Kentron and Nork-Marash districts are detaining his client without proper cause and have even fabricated false evidence against him.

The lawyer states, “In contravention of criminal procedural statutes, the judge employed a variety of ruses to prevent the defense was familiarizing itself with all aspects of the case. I submitted a challenge to the court and even cited case precedence taken from decisions of the European Court.”

The judge rejected the lawyer’s challenge and immediately issued its decision as to the motion for detention. The defense was even deprived of the right to present arguments against the motion and to state its position.

Attorney Zakaryan went on to explain that, “Afterwards a number of blatant falsehoods were entered into the court register. I had tape recorded the entire court proceeding and filed a motion for the Court of Appeals to include this recording in the case log. This recording would expose the falsifications permitted by the lower court.”

The Court of Appeals, with Artur Poghosyan presiding, rejected the motion and left the decision of Court of First Instance to stand as is.

The lawyer declared that, “The entire court procedure was more for show than anything else. They had no factual evidence to link Baghdasaryan to any of the offences he was charged with. All the court did was to publish the decision of the preliminary investigative body to recommend that my client undergo pre-trial detention. There was no investigation of any evidence.”

Davit, the jailed artist’s son, states, “No body know what to make of all this. It’s difficult to contemplate what tomorrow will bring. All I know for certain is that we’ll pursue every legal recourse to see that justice prevails.”

On April 2nd, some thirty detainees at various Armenian prison facilities joined Tigran Baghdasaryan in declaring a hunger strike. These individuals are supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan and assert that it is due to their political beliefs that they are being criminally charged. They demand that all charges be dropped against them and that they be released. Fourteen of those who joined the collective hunger strike did so for one day. Many of the hunger strikers, however, have already declared that if their demands are not met they will go on an indefinite strike starting April 9th.

P.S.  On April 9th, as promised more than twenty detainees at various Armenian prison facilities declared that they were going on indefinite hunger strike. The next day, Armenia’s First President, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, called on them to end their protest action arguing that, “Your health, unbending will and resoluteness will be called upon in the upcoming stages of the popular struggle...” Heeding his plea, the detainees, including the painter Tigran Baghdasaryan, called off their hunger strike.