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2008 Armenian presidential election protests

March 1 events
Protests at Freedom Square on 24 February, tents set up by protesters, demonstrations at Myasnikyan Square on 1 March. Police forces occupying the Freedom Square weeks after the forcible suppression on 23 March.
Date20 February – 2 March 2008 (11 days)
Location
Yerevan, Armenia
Caused byAlleged electoral fraud
GoalsNew elections
Resulted inPeaceful[1] protests suppressed by force[2]
Parties
Lead figures

Robert Kocharyan (incumbent president)
Serzh Sargsyan (Prime Minister, president-elect)
Mikael Harutyunyan (Defence Minister)
Seyran Ohanyan (Chief of General Sraff)
Gorik Hakobyan (Head of the NSS)
Hayk Harutyunyan (Head of the police)

Number
50,000 (Feb. 20)[citation needed]
up to few thousand policemen/soldiers
Casualties
Death(s)10 (8 protesters, 1 policeman, 1 soldier)[10][5]
Injuries200[10]
Arrested106[12]
7 shops looted[3]
63 vehicles set on fire[3]
Main locations of the demonstrations, black dots denote the locations of the fatalities.

A series of anti-government riots took place in Armenia following presidential elections held on 19 February 2008. Protests broke out in the Armenian capital Yerevan, organized by supporters of presidential candidate and former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and other opposition leaders.

The protests began on 20 February, lasted for 10 days in Yerevan's Freedom Square, and involved tens of thousands of demonstrators during the day and hundreds camping out overnight. Despite the urges of the government to stop the demonstrations, the protests continued until 1 March. After nine days of peaceful protests at Freedom Square, the national police and military forces tried to disperse the protesters on 1 March.[13][page needed] On the morning of 1 March, police and army units dispersed the 700 to 1,000 protesters who remained overnight, beating them with truncheons and electric-shock devices.[14][15] As a result, 10 people were killed. As of 4 March, many protesters were still missing.[16] On 1 March, Ter-Petrosyan was placed under de facto house arrest.[13][15][17]

At noon on 1 March, a crowd of at least 10,000 protesters held a rally in front of the French embassy in Yerevan.[18] Police officers pulled away from the area by 4 pm, as they were overwhelmed by the growing number of demonstrators. Activists then used abandoned police buses to set up barricades. In the evening, clashes broke out between riot police and about 2,000 protesters who barricaded themselves at Miasnikyan Square. At around 10 pm, President Robert Kocharyan, with the approval of the Armenian parliament, declared a 20-day state of emergency, banning future demonstrations and censoring the media from broadcasting any political news except those issued by official state press releases.[19] Kocharian justified the decision on the grounds that a minority of demonstrators looted a nearby grocery store on Mashtots Avenue and set fire to a handful of police vehicles and buses[19] Opposition leaders say that the looters had nothing to do with the demonstration, and that they were led by agent provocateurs. With the state of emergency in effect, at around 4:00 on 2 March, Levon Ter-Petrosyan asked the protesters near the French Embassy to go home, thus ending the protests.[14]

The events of 1 March 2008 are simply referred to as Marti mek (Armenian: Մարտի մեկ "March First") in Armenia.

  1. ^ Tavernise, Sabrina (3 March 2008). "Emergency Order Empties Armenian Capital's Streets". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2013. It was clear by early afternoon Saturday that after 10 days of peaceful protests, the demonstrators, who had been beaten by police officers in the morning, were spoiling for a fight.
  2. ^ "Hundreds Commemorate Victims of 2008 Clashes in Yerevan". RFE/RL. 1 March 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013. Five years ago on March 1 demonstrators protesting the official presidential election results were violently dispersed by police and military forces, leaving 10 people dead.
  3. ^ a b c Human Rights Watch 2009, p. 34.
  4. ^ "Assassination attempt in Armenia threatens stability". Reuters. 1 February 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Armenia: Skewed Prosecution Over 2008 Clashes". Human Rights Watch. 25 February 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  6. ^ "Ter-Petrosian 'Under House Arrest', Rally Broken Up", Radio Liberty Archived 2008-11-23 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "8 killed in Armenian protests". Los Angeles Times. 2 March 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Armenian Opposition Reoccupies Key Square As Protests Grow in Strength". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  9. ^ Hovhannisyan, Irina; Bedevian, Astghik; Stepanian, Ruzanna (30 May 2011). "No More 'Political Prisoners' In Armenia, Says Ter-Petrosian". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
  10. ^ a b c "Armenia 2012 report". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2013. Social polarization deepened after mass protests following the 2008 presidential election were dispersed by police and army forces, leaving ten dead and up to two hundred wounded.
  11. ^ "Army Warns Protesters After Eight Die in Armenia". Dalje. 2 March 2008. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  12. ^ "Armenia: Skirmishes Taint First Day After State Of Emergency". RFE/RL. 21 March 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2013. Armenian prosecutors announced on March 19 that they had arrested 106 people for allegedly plotting to stage a coup during the postelection protests.
  13. ^ a b "Report by the Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, on his special mission to Armenia, 12–15 march 2008", Council of Europe, 20 March 2008.[page needed]
  14. ^ a b "Armenia: Police Beat Peaceful Protesters in Yerevan" Archived 11 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch (NY), 2 March 2008.
  15. ^ a b Ter-Petrosyan ‘Under House Arrest,’ Rally Broken Up Archived 23 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1 March 2008.
  16. ^ "Human Rights Watch Demands Probe Into Armenian Crackdown", Armenia Liberty (RFE/RL), 4 March 2008. Archived 8 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "Armenia: At Least 2 Dead in Yerevan Violence, as Kocharian Declares State of Emergency" Archived 3 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Armenia: Vote 2008 (EurasiaNet.org), 1 March 2008.
  18. ^ "Crowd near French Embassy grows to tens of thousands or more" Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ArmeniaNow.com, 1 March 2008 (4 pm).
  19. ^ a b At Least Eight Killed In Armenian Post-Election Unrest", Armenia Liberty ([RFE/RL]), 2 March 2008. Archived 16 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
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