In Armenia in 1973-1974 a series of trials took place in which Armenians were charged with ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’ and with ‘organizational activity aimed at committing especially grave crimes against the State and participation in anti-Soviet organizations’. Under the latter article the accused were charged with membership of ‘The National United Party of Armenia’, the aim of which was the secession of Armenia from the USSR.
*
In November 1973, Bagrat Shakhverdyan was sentenced to five years in a labour camp and two years in exile (he is now in Camp 36 of the Perm complex); his co-defendant A. Tovmasyan, was sentenced to three and a half years in a labour camp (he is now in Camp 17 of the Mordovian complex). Tovmasyan has five children; the youngest is one year old.
In spring 1974 Ruben Kbachatryan and Levon Badalyan were both sentenced to two and a half years in labour camps; Kadzhik Saakyan, Norik Martirosyan and Samvel Martirosyan all received sentences of three and a half years of labour camps (Badalyan, N. Martirosyan and S. Martirosyan were co-defendants).
Ashot Navasardyan was sentenced to seven years of labour camps and two years in exile. During his trial Navasardyan asked that the procurator, Gambaryan, be replaced, on the grounds that during the pre-trial investigation the latter had threatened the defendant Airikyan with a sentence of 10 years in a special-regime labour camp. In addition, Navasardyan challenged the composition of the court: since its members were all Communists, he said, they could not be objective towards him, a member of another party. These challenges were, of course, rejected. As a protest, Navasardyan refused to take part in the trial. He was charged with drawing up the National United Party’s programme and also with preparing and distributing around 1,000 leaflets. In 1969 he had been sentenced under the same article to two years in a labour camp.°
Under the article corresponding to Article 190-1 (RSFSR Criminal Code), female defendant Anait Karapetyan was sentenced, in the summer of 1974, to two years in a labour camp.
In autumn 1974 Gagik Arakelyan and his co-defendant Kostan Karapetyan were both sentenced to two and a half years in labour camps; Razmik Markosyan was sentenced to four years in labour camps and two years in exile; Razmik Zograbyan, Ant Arshakyan and Paruir Airikyan were each sentenced to seven years in labour camps and three in exile. (Markosyan, Zograbyan and Arshakyan were co-defendants.) Navasardyan, Markosyan, Zograbyan and Arshakyan were born in 1950, A. Karapetyan was born in 1951 and Arakelyan and K. Karapetyan in 1956.
Since August 1974 prisoners in the KGB investigation prison in Erevan have been confined in subterranean cells, which were closed in 1937 and only opened up again this year. These cells are cold and contain scorpions. In answer to Arshakyan’s complaint to the procurator about the scorpions, his cell was disinfected while he was in it, after which for a long time he was seriously ill from poisoning by toxic fumes.
*
The Trial of Paruir Airikyan
Paruir Airikyan was born in 1949 in Erevan. He did not complete his higher education.
In 1969 he was sentenced to four years in a labour camp under Article 65, para. 1 (Armenian Criminal Code = Article 70, RSFSR Code) and Article 67 (Armenian Code = Article 72, RSFSR Code). He served his sentence in the Mordovian camp complex, and was released in March 1973 (CCE 33). On his return to Erevan, Airikyan was placed under administrative surveillance.
On 5 March 1974 a people’s court sentenced Airikyan to two years in a labour camp for breaking the rules of surveillance. After the trial he was sent to a KGB investigation prison. On 19 March 1974, new charges were brought against him, once again under Articles 65 (this time para. 2) and 67 of the Armenian SSR Criminal Code.
Paruir Airikyan (b. 1949)
His case was tried from 29 October to 22 November by the Armenian SSR Supreme Court. At Airikyan’s request the court was adjourned from 30 October to 5 November, so that he might prepare his defence (he had refused the services of a lawyer).
*
The charges against Airikyan related to the letters he had written to his relations and friends from the Mordovian camps (these letters had been confiscated by the camp censors and turned over to the KGB) and statements he had sent from the camp to the Armenian SSR Supreme Soviet and the United Nations. Airikyan was also charged with preparing and distributing slogans and pamphlets which were ‘anti-Soviet and slanderous in content and which defamed the Soviet political and social system’, and with having ‘links with foreign governments’.
In his speech for the prosecution, Procurator Khudoyan asserted that Airikyan had carried out anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda by sending the statements and letters from his labour camp.” The procurator cited the following examples: in one of his letters, Airikyan wrote to his parents on the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, saying that this was a tragic day for him, as 50 years ago Armenia had ceased to exist; in another letter, Airikyan used the phrase ‘poor Armenia’; in a statement to the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR, Airikyan wrote: ‘Why are we, Armenians, serving our sentences in the labour camps of Mordovia? We should be in Armenia, not in Russia.’
All but one of the witnesses denied that Airikyan had participated in any way in the reproduction and distribution of pamphlets or slogans. Only Ruben Khachatryan gave some sort of evidence during the pre-trial investigation about Airikyan’s involvement. At the trial he stated only that he had shown Airikyan a pamphlet, and that Airikyan had read it and given it back to him in silence. On being asked by the procurator when he had been giving true evidence, at the pre-trial investigation or during the trial, Khachatryan replied: ‘I’ve already forgotten, I don’t remember, probably the first time, during the investigation.’ On the basis of this testimony alone the procurator charged Airikyan concerning the pamphlets and slogans. In his defence speech, Airikyan said that he fully agreed with the texts of the slogans and pamphlets, but that he had taken no part in reproducing them.
The procurator based the charge of ‘links with foreign governments’ on the fact that, in a search of the Moscow flat of Yelena Sirotenko, a list had been confiscated which contained the names of Armenians sentenced for ‘nationalism’, and that the ‘Possev’ publishing-house in Munich had published the same list.
Sirotenko, who appeared as a witness at the trail, denied that she had received the list from Airikyan. Besides the list, a letter to a foreign addressee was also confiscated during the search at Sirotenko’s flat; the letter contained a request to locate a relative of Airikyan and to inform him that Airikyan and other arrested Armenians needed help and support. The procurator interpreted this as a link between Airikyan and Sirotenko, who in turn had links with foreign countries. Finally, according to evidence given by Ruben Khachatryan’s brother, Airikyan had asked him for a photograph of Ruben. On this ground the procurator stated: ‘It is quite clear that Airikyan wanted this photograph so that he could send it abroad.’
The procurator asked for Airikyan to be sentenced to 10 years in a special regime labour camp and four years in exile.
At the beginning of the trial, when asked ‘Do you plead guilty?’ Airikyan replied:
‘I do not consider myself guilty. In fact I’ve done nothing since my release from the Mordovian camps; I have not taken part in any activities. As for my opinions, they have remained as before, I have not altered them.’
In his defence speech Airikyan stated that since 1967 he had been a member of the National United Party of Armenia and that he still supported its aims and programme. He said that he wanted to see Armenia free and that he considered this to be possible only if Armenia exercised its right to self-determination in accordance with the Soviet constitution.
*
In his final statement, Airikyan said, in part:
“Up to now there has been no country in which they try people for patriotism.
“But I am being condemned for my patriotic opinions . . .
“Soon I shall be sent away from my beloved Armenia, from my native land. This is very hard to bear, but I know that until there is an independent Armenia my place will be in a prison cell. You fear me greatly, and this shows that you are very weak. The strong fear no one. Only the very weak fear words, and answer words with brute force. Your attitude to me shows the weakness of your ideology. This is not my final speech. I think this is not the place for that. Long live a free and independent Armenia! My goal is not class struggle.
“I am interested only in achieving an independent Armenia. The people themselves will decide the question of social structure.”
In the verdict the charge of ‘links with foreign governments’ was found to be unproven. The court sentenced Airikyan to seven years in a strict-regime labour camp and three years in exile. A sentence of the Supreme Court is not subject to appeal.
*
Tatyana S. Khodorovich, a member of the Action Group for the Defence of Human Rights in the USSR, and Yury F. Orlov, corresponding member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, issued the following statement:
“To the International Commission of Jurists
to Amnesty International
Statement
“Having been present at two sessions of the trial of P. Airikyan, we declare that neither during the pre-trial investigation nor at the trial was it proved that the accused had committed the crimes with which he was charged.
“Paruir Airikyan is not guilty. He has been condemned for his beliefs and opinions, not for his actions. This contravenes not only the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also Soviet laws.
“We ask Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists to acquaint themselves with the investigation and trial documents in the case of P. Airikyan, and to call for his exculpation and release.”
Tatyana Khodorovich
Yury Orlov
22 November 1974
=========================================
A Chronicle of Current Events 