Tweet
Pasadena Weekly, CA
Feb 15 2007
Locked down for speaking up
Glendale publisher Arman Babajanyan joins the ranks of imprisoned
journalists from his jail cell in Armenia
By Carl Kozlowski
Lusine Kalfayan and Vergine Babajanyan
Arman Babajanyan was just another immigrant when he arrived in
Glendale back in 1998. Like others, he came in search of the American
Dream, but his vision was a bit more politicized than most: he wanted
to start a newspaper in the Land of the Free, where he could expose
what he considered to be a hopelessly corrupt government in his
native Armenia.
For more than six years he fulfilled his ambitions as the founder of
Zhamanak Yerevan, a newspaper that made a quick and lasting impact on
the 300,000-strong population of Armenians living in the Los Angeles
area. Yet even as he built a power base in his new homeland,
Babajanyan felt he wasn't doing enough to spur change in his native
land.
So last spring, he made the latest of several return visits to
Armenia - this time planning to stay and launch another edition of
his newspaper. The chance to finally speak truth to power was too
great to pass up, and for several heady weeks in May and June
Babajanyan was making his dream come alive on both sides of the
globe.
Then on June 26, his life came crashing down around him when Armenian
police called him in under the pretense of questioning him on cases
in which he wasn't directly charged, then threw him in jail. The
official reason was that Babajanyan had evaded the nation's mandatory
draft when he moved to America years before. Furthermore, authorities
said that he had forged documents to do so.
But his many supporters - ranging from his sister to some of the
world's most influential journalistic organizations - say that the
charges were trumped up as punishment for articles questioning the
independence of the prosecutor general's office. Babajanyan is facing
a four-year prison sentence, yet Armenian laws only call for two
years for draft evasion. Something vastly unfair and suspicious is
happening in his case, supporters say.
`We did an alert on him right when he was jailed, because he was
arrested only days after his paper published an article questioning
the independence of the prosecutor general's office,' says Nina
Ognianova, the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for
the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists. `The
authorities alleged the forgery occurred in 2002 but they did not
explain why this purported forgery has triggered a much later arrest,
four years
after the crime occurred.
The prosecutor general summoned Arman for questioning in a criminal
case and then arrested him on the spot for forgery.'
Ognianova noted that her organization also sent faxes to Armenian
embassies that were ignored, `which is typical of how these nationals
handle questions based on freedom.' In addition, the Armenian
authorities `repeatedly rejected' health documents that could have
supported Babajanyan's case for avoiding the draft.
`Ultimately, they either don't care, or they don't even have a case,'
says Ognianova.
Back in the USSR
The Glendale City Council made the extremely rare and perhaps
unprecedented move on Dec. 12 of writing a letter asking for leniency
on his behalf from the foreign government of Armenia, making the
issue explode across the normally bucolic city's political and social
scenes. As a divided council, which voted 3-2 to send the letter of
support, and the broader city population divide into polar-opposite
camps on the issue of whether a city government had any business
engaging in international politics, the fact remains that he is
caught in the midst of a dire situation. It's one where even the
area's congressman, Adam Schiff, has declined to get involved with
helping, even after being directly confronted by Babajanyan's sister,
Vergine Babajanyan; not only that, he refused to explain why.
`I think the reason that Schiff isn't doing anything is that he
counts on votes from a bloc of people who work with an Armenian
political party that opposes Arman's views,' says Lusine Kalfayan, a
close friend of Babajanyan's who is spearheading the quest for his
freedom along with Vergine. Kalfayan noted that Arman's prison
treatment is so poor he lost 40 pounds in his first two months there.
`Arman opposes the current government because it's Robert Kocharian
in charge and he's a one-man show. He's done two terms and he wants
to run for a third one too, even though it's nonconstitutional. The
whole government is corrupt, when the one on top gets what he wants.
Maybe they're not the Soviet Union anymore, but it may as well be.'
Judging from the US State Department's official Web site, Kalfayan's
assertions about the state of Armenia's government are well-founded.
Since taking power in 1998, Kocharian has ridden out massive unrest
caused by a string of political assassinations in his nation as well
as winning reelection in a `contentious election that the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the US
government deemed well short of international standards.'
Serious questions also abounded about the fairness of parliamentary
and presidential elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, and despite a new
constitution that was implemented in 2005, Armenia's executive branch
- headed by Kocharian - `nevertheless retains more power than most
European countries.' In addition, the government's human rights
record remained poor in 2005 as the Web site noted `security forces
beat pretrial detainees,' and reports of `arbitrary arrest and
detention' were also common. Most tellingly of all, press freedoms
are listed as being curtailed.
`None of our business'
The first people to leap to Babajanyan's aid were Kalfayan and
Vergine. They called Glendale city officials, including City Council
members and Mayor Dave Weaver, but only received return calls from
City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian, who offered his point of view on the
situation but said he could go no further. Councilman Frank Quintero
suggested that the pair come to the next council meeting's oral
communication session, and the fireworks began soon after.
`I was the one who emailed everyone at the same time and this was an
opportunity for everyone to respond,' Kalfayan recalls. `Bob Yusefian
said that I was trying to make the Armenians on the council look bad,
and he denied us oral communication because he said that he didn't
know Arman and so that was going to be all.'
Yet, Kalfayan notes, Yusefian had in fact had a few meetings over the
years with Babajanyan in order to buy advertising in his newspaper at
election times, a fact even Yusefian admitted at City Council
meetings. But even then, Yusefian opposed the council's letter.
`He didn't just say no, but he made the whole process dirty. He said
it wasn't due to journalism, human rights or freedom of speech, but
that he was opposed to the letter as an individual, saying `What are
we to do if someone comes from Chile and asks for help? Do we listen
to them too?'' Kalfayan recalls. `I said we have 6,000 people in this
community signing a document on this and I'm sure he'd appreciate
6,000 signatures when he needs to be elected.'
Rafi Manoukian, Ara Najarian and Quintero all voted in favor of the
letter, which was sent to Babajanyan's Armenia-based attorney Zara
Postanjyan so she could determine how best to utilize it in his
appeals battles. Yusefian was joined by Mayor Weaver in opposing the
letter, and both men refused repeated requests for comment on their
decisions.
The Glendale News Press featured both a house editorial and guest
columns by citizens opposing the council's letter, stating that the
council should be focused on local matters like street repair and
school financing rather than engaging in an international political
matter. But thanks to Kalfayan's ability to round up more than 6,000
signatures for Babajanyan's release and the Zhamanak Yerevan's Web
site showing an average range of anywhere from 600,000 to over one
million visitors monthly, it is easy to see why Quintero felt it
important to side with Babajanyan.
`For me, the basic principle is the freedom of speech issue because
he was arrested after his newspaper began publication in Armenia. I
find it interesting that up to that point, he was fine. Then after
publishing for a month, the arrest suddenly happens,' says Quintero.
`Lucy Kalfayan initially kept us up to date on the trial as Arman
learned whether he was eligible to pay his way to freedom by paying a
fine, and was refused even though the Armenian law provides that
option for most people.'
Quintero had no qualms about supporting Babajanyan's cause because he
found him to be a `solid citizen' here, with a `wonderful ability' to
work within the immigrant community.
`You have to take a moral stand: a man's in prison, they gave him
four years, but those of us on his side say, `Let him come home,'
that Glendale's his home,' says Quintero. `He had a newspaper and a
television program and explained American civic life as well as
Armenian current events, and it was a great and popular service. His
mother's here, which is very sad, and his sister as well.'
Najarian, meanwhile, notes that voting for the letter `is not getting
on his side, but rather is presenting a statement of a series of
facts concerning his time in the city of Glendale for him to use in
any way he sees fit.' Furthermore, he sees the letter as akin to a
police probation report for those convicted in California, in which a
judge is given a report to which he or she can then decide to give
small or major consideration when deciding upon a sentence. In this
case, Najarian felt `the Armenian government may not be aware of what
he was doing in the United States and it would certainly fill in the
gaps.'
`The first thing that everyone agreed on is that Glendale City
Council doesn't have a right to dictate to any foreign or sovereign
government whether their decisions are fair or unfair. That should be
the State Department and foreign officers who have the training to do
that,' says Najarian, who is also an attorney. `Our dilemma was that
we wanted to issue some sort of statement about his time in Glendale
but not overstep our bounds on foreign policy. I think that it is
merely a statement of fact that no one could disagree with, and sent
not only to his attorney but to the Armenian consular officer in LA
so everything was out in the open.'
While Najarian indicated that the council was willing to be open with
the Armenian consulate, the consulate does not appear to share that
openness in return. Repeated attempts to contact the consul staff
were met by the consulate's answering machine for three weeks, until
it was made clear they had one last chance to explain their side of
the story. Even at that point, the consul official spoke under the
condition that his name would not be published.
`On Jan. 12, the court of appeal made its final decision on this
case, and shortened by six months Mr. Babajanyan's sentence, so he's
going to be imprisoned for three and a half years rather than four,'
the official says.
`He was accused of forging the documents to say he had two children
because a person who has two children is not conscripted to the army
unless their children are mature. This is a mere criminal case, and I
don't want to color it politically as his supporters are. I don't
think journalists in America are allowed to forge documents. He has
accepted the charges against him from the very first day, and that
has been commented on in both Armenian and English mass media.'
Remembering our humanity
In reality, Babajanyan has admitted skipping on the draft, but he and
his supporters adamantly deny he ever forged documents. Take a look
at the roll call of organizations stepping up to defend him. Besides
the aforementioned immediate alert created by the Committee to
Protect Journalists, the CPJ has issued numerous press releases about
his situation and officially included Babajanyan on its global list
of unfairly jailed journalists. The Overseas Press Club sent an open
letter to Armenia's president, prime minister, US ambassador and
permanent representative to the United Nations, noting that the
editors of seven Armenian newspapers have issued a joint declaration
calling Babajanyan's arrest `an effort to intimidate Armenia's free
press.'
Reporters Without Borders has issued an outraged press release
declaring Babajanyan's prison sentence `disproportionate.' And, in
their own letter, Manoukian, Najarian and Quintero of the City
Council noted his clean criminal record in America, his newspaper and
his daily television show and the `large audience and many loyal
constituents' he had established in Glendale.
To be fair, Schiff has long been involved with other Armenian causes
and in January sponsored congressional legislation calling for
official US government recognition of the Armenian genocide. He also
issued a letter strongly condemning the murder of Armenian journalist
and Turkish government critic Hrant Dink in Turkey.
Since Schiff's office refused to comment for him, one prominent
figure in the fight to help Babajanyan offered his own speculation
about the reasons for Schiff's silence.
`The only thing Schiff may have a reluctance to do would be to in any
way criticize the Armenian government. If you're supporting
Babajanyan, you're in a backhand way criticizing the government,'
says the source who did not want to be identified. `He may be
reluctant to get in without all the details. They have a coalition
government there with many different parties involved and if you
criticize the government, you are in effect labeling all the
political groups there, even ones that are forces for good there.'
But this is a world in which at least 134 journalists are imprisoned
in 25 countries as well as Guantanamo Bay, where a man like Dink was
killed in cold blood outside of his newspaper office in Turkey, and
where China's dictatorship censors Internet search engines like
Google and controls all forms of news reporting. It's a planet where
Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in a video
available on the Internet and even American reporters like Judith
Miller and Josh Wolf are tossed into prison cells for refusing to
name sources.
In such a climate, perhaps it's a little too uncomfortable for some
officials to help a man like Babajanyan.
`We try not to isolate ourselves too much. It's important to know the
world is going on around us. We came out pretty strong in Africa
against the Sudanese government when Darfur was occurring,' says
Najarian. `Even if we don't meddle in foreign affairs, we have to
remember our humanity. We need to maintain our sense of humanity and
morality throughout without overstepping the bounds into government
affairs, and that is a fine line. What we did for Mr. Babajanyan did
not cross that line.'
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=432 3&IssueNum=59
Feb 15 2007
Locked down for speaking up
Glendale publisher Arman Babajanyan joins the ranks of imprisoned
journalists from his jail cell in Armenia
By Carl Kozlowski
Lusine Kalfayan and Vergine Babajanyan
Arman Babajanyan was just another immigrant when he arrived in
Glendale back in 1998. Like others, he came in search of the American
Dream, but his vision was a bit more politicized than most: he wanted
to start a newspaper in the Land of the Free, where he could expose
what he considered to be a hopelessly corrupt government in his
native Armenia.
For more than six years he fulfilled his ambitions as the founder of
Zhamanak Yerevan, a newspaper that made a quick and lasting impact on
the 300,000-strong population of Armenians living in the Los Angeles
area. Yet even as he built a power base in his new homeland,
Babajanyan felt he wasn't doing enough to spur change in his native
land.
So last spring, he made the latest of several return visits to
Armenia - this time planning to stay and launch another edition of
his newspaper. The chance to finally speak truth to power was too
great to pass up, and for several heady weeks in May and June
Babajanyan was making his dream come alive on both sides of the
globe.
Then on June 26, his life came crashing down around him when Armenian
police called him in under the pretense of questioning him on cases
in which he wasn't directly charged, then threw him in jail. The
official reason was that Babajanyan had evaded the nation's mandatory
draft when he moved to America years before. Furthermore, authorities
said that he had forged documents to do so.
But his many supporters - ranging from his sister to some of the
world's most influential journalistic organizations - say that the
charges were trumped up as punishment for articles questioning the
independence of the prosecutor general's office. Babajanyan is facing
a four-year prison sentence, yet Armenian laws only call for two
years for draft evasion. Something vastly unfair and suspicious is
happening in his case, supporters say.
`We did an alert on him right when he was jailed, because he was
arrested only days after his paper published an article questioning
the independence of the prosecutor general's office,' says Nina
Ognianova, the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for
the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists. `The
authorities alleged the forgery occurred in 2002 but they did not
explain why this purported forgery has triggered a much later arrest,
four years
after the crime occurred.
The prosecutor general summoned Arman for questioning in a criminal
case and then arrested him on the spot for forgery.'
Ognianova noted that her organization also sent faxes to Armenian
embassies that were ignored, `which is typical of how these nationals
handle questions based on freedom.' In addition, the Armenian
authorities `repeatedly rejected' health documents that could have
supported Babajanyan's case for avoiding the draft.
`Ultimately, they either don't care, or they don't even have a case,'
says Ognianova.
Back in the USSR
The Glendale City Council made the extremely rare and perhaps
unprecedented move on Dec. 12 of writing a letter asking for leniency
on his behalf from the foreign government of Armenia, making the
issue explode across the normally bucolic city's political and social
scenes. As a divided council, which voted 3-2 to send the letter of
support, and the broader city population divide into polar-opposite
camps on the issue of whether a city government had any business
engaging in international politics, the fact remains that he is
caught in the midst of a dire situation. It's one where even the
area's congressman, Adam Schiff, has declined to get involved with
helping, even after being directly confronted by Babajanyan's sister,
Vergine Babajanyan; not only that, he refused to explain why.
`I think the reason that Schiff isn't doing anything is that he
counts on votes from a bloc of people who work with an Armenian
political party that opposes Arman's views,' says Lusine Kalfayan, a
close friend of Babajanyan's who is spearheading the quest for his
freedom along with Vergine. Kalfayan noted that Arman's prison
treatment is so poor he lost 40 pounds in his first two months there.
`Arman opposes the current government because it's Robert Kocharian
in charge and he's a one-man show. He's done two terms and he wants
to run for a third one too, even though it's nonconstitutional. The
whole government is corrupt, when the one on top gets what he wants.
Maybe they're not the Soviet Union anymore, but it may as well be.'
Judging from the US State Department's official Web site, Kalfayan's
assertions about the state of Armenia's government are well-founded.
Since taking power in 1998, Kocharian has ridden out massive unrest
caused by a string of political assassinations in his nation as well
as winning reelection in a `contentious election that the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the US
government deemed well short of international standards.'
Serious questions also abounded about the fairness of parliamentary
and presidential elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, and despite a new
constitution that was implemented in 2005, Armenia's executive branch
- headed by Kocharian - `nevertheless retains more power than most
European countries.' In addition, the government's human rights
record remained poor in 2005 as the Web site noted `security forces
beat pretrial detainees,' and reports of `arbitrary arrest and
detention' were also common. Most tellingly of all, press freedoms
are listed as being curtailed.
`None of our business'
The first people to leap to Babajanyan's aid were Kalfayan and
Vergine. They called Glendale city officials, including City Council
members and Mayor Dave Weaver, but only received return calls from
City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian, who offered his point of view on the
situation but said he could go no further. Councilman Frank Quintero
suggested that the pair come to the next council meeting's oral
communication session, and the fireworks began soon after.
`I was the one who emailed everyone at the same time and this was an
opportunity for everyone to respond,' Kalfayan recalls. `Bob Yusefian
said that I was trying to make the Armenians on the council look bad,
and he denied us oral communication because he said that he didn't
know Arman and so that was going to be all.'
Yet, Kalfayan notes, Yusefian had in fact had a few meetings over the
years with Babajanyan in order to buy advertising in his newspaper at
election times, a fact even Yusefian admitted at City Council
meetings. But even then, Yusefian opposed the council's letter.
`He didn't just say no, but he made the whole process dirty. He said
it wasn't due to journalism, human rights or freedom of speech, but
that he was opposed to the letter as an individual, saying `What are
we to do if someone comes from Chile and asks for help? Do we listen
to them too?'' Kalfayan recalls. `I said we have 6,000 people in this
community signing a document on this and I'm sure he'd appreciate
6,000 signatures when he needs to be elected.'
Rafi Manoukian, Ara Najarian and Quintero all voted in favor of the
letter, which was sent to Babajanyan's Armenia-based attorney Zara
Postanjyan so she could determine how best to utilize it in his
appeals battles. Yusefian was joined by Mayor Weaver in opposing the
letter, and both men refused repeated requests for comment on their
decisions.
The Glendale News Press featured both a house editorial and guest
columns by citizens opposing the council's letter, stating that the
council should be focused on local matters like street repair and
school financing rather than engaging in an international political
matter. But thanks to Kalfayan's ability to round up more than 6,000
signatures for Babajanyan's release and the Zhamanak Yerevan's Web
site showing an average range of anywhere from 600,000 to over one
million visitors monthly, it is easy to see why Quintero felt it
important to side with Babajanyan.
`For me, the basic principle is the freedom of speech issue because
he was arrested after his newspaper began publication in Armenia. I
find it interesting that up to that point, he was fine. Then after
publishing for a month, the arrest suddenly happens,' says Quintero.
`Lucy Kalfayan initially kept us up to date on the trial as Arman
learned whether he was eligible to pay his way to freedom by paying a
fine, and was refused even though the Armenian law provides that
option for most people.'
Quintero had no qualms about supporting Babajanyan's cause because he
found him to be a `solid citizen' here, with a `wonderful ability' to
work within the immigrant community.
`You have to take a moral stand: a man's in prison, they gave him
four years, but those of us on his side say, `Let him come home,'
that Glendale's his home,' says Quintero. `He had a newspaper and a
television program and explained American civic life as well as
Armenian current events, and it was a great and popular service. His
mother's here, which is very sad, and his sister as well.'
Najarian, meanwhile, notes that voting for the letter `is not getting
on his side, but rather is presenting a statement of a series of
facts concerning his time in the city of Glendale for him to use in
any way he sees fit.' Furthermore, he sees the letter as akin to a
police probation report for those convicted in California, in which a
judge is given a report to which he or she can then decide to give
small or major consideration when deciding upon a sentence. In this
case, Najarian felt `the Armenian government may not be aware of what
he was doing in the United States and it would certainly fill in the
gaps.'
`The first thing that everyone agreed on is that Glendale City
Council doesn't have a right to dictate to any foreign or sovereign
government whether their decisions are fair or unfair. That should be
the State Department and foreign officers who have the training to do
that,' says Najarian, who is also an attorney. `Our dilemma was that
we wanted to issue some sort of statement about his time in Glendale
but not overstep our bounds on foreign policy. I think that it is
merely a statement of fact that no one could disagree with, and sent
not only to his attorney but to the Armenian consular officer in LA
so everything was out in the open.'
While Najarian indicated that the council was willing to be open with
the Armenian consulate, the consulate does not appear to share that
openness in return. Repeated attempts to contact the consul staff
were met by the consulate's answering machine for three weeks, until
it was made clear they had one last chance to explain their side of
the story. Even at that point, the consul official spoke under the
condition that his name would not be published.
`On Jan. 12, the court of appeal made its final decision on this
case, and shortened by six months Mr. Babajanyan's sentence, so he's
going to be imprisoned for three and a half years rather than four,'
the official says.
`He was accused of forging the documents to say he had two children
because a person who has two children is not conscripted to the army
unless their children are mature. This is a mere criminal case, and I
don't want to color it politically as his supporters are. I don't
think journalists in America are allowed to forge documents. He has
accepted the charges against him from the very first day, and that
has been commented on in both Armenian and English mass media.'
Remembering our humanity
In reality, Babajanyan has admitted skipping on the draft, but he and
his supporters adamantly deny he ever forged documents. Take a look
at the roll call of organizations stepping up to defend him. Besides
the aforementioned immediate alert created by the Committee to
Protect Journalists, the CPJ has issued numerous press releases about
his situation and officially included Babajanyan on its global list
of unfairly jailed journalists. The Overseas Press Club sent an open
letter to Armenia's president, prime minister, US ambassador and
permanent representative to the United Nations, noting that the
editors of seven Armenian newspapers have issued a joint declaration
calling Babajanyan's arrest `an effort to intimidate Armenia's free
press.'
Reporters Without Borders has issued an outraged press release
declaring Babajanyan's prison sentence `disproportionate.' And, in
their own letter, Manoukian, Najarian and Quintero of the City
Council noted his clean criminal record in America, his newspaper and
his daily television show and the `large audience and many loyal
constituents' he had established in Glendale.
To be fair, Schiff has long been involved with other Armenian causes
and in January sponsored congressional legislation calling for
official US government recognition of the Armenian genocide. He also
issued a letter strongly condemning the murder of Armenian journalist
and Turkish government critic Hrant Dink in Turkey.
Since Schiff's office refused to comment for him, one prominent
figure in the fight to help Babajanyan offered his own speculation
about the reasons for Schiff's silence.
`The only thing Schiff may have a reluctance to do would be to in any
way criticize the Armenian government. If you're supporting
Babajanyan, you're in a backhand way criticizing the government,'
says the source who did not want to be identified. `He may be
reluctant to get in without all the details. They have a coalition
government there with many different parties involved and if you
criticize the government, you are in effect labeling all the
political groups there, even ones that are forces for good there.'
But this is a world in which at least 134 journalists are imprisoned
in 25 countries as well as Guantanamo Bay, where a man like Dink was
killed in cold blood outside of his newspaper office in Turkey, and
where China's dictatorship censors Internet search engines like
Google and controls all forms of news reporting. It's a planet where
Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in a video
available on the Internet and even American reporters like Judith
Miller and Josh Wolf are tossed into prison cells for refusing to
name sources.
In such a climate, perhaps it's a little too uncomfortable for some
officials to help a man like Babajanyan.
`We try not to isolate ourselves too much. It's important to know the
world is going on around us. We came out pretty strong in Africa
against the Sudanese government when Darfur was occurring,' says
Najarian. `Even if we don't meddle in foreign affairs, we have to
remember our humanity. We need to maintain our sense of humanity and
morality throughout without overstepping the bounds into government
affairs, and that is a fine line. What we did for Mr. Babajanyan did
not cross that line.'
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=432 3&IssueNum=59