Open letter to Mr.

Solana

An Open Letter to Mr. Javier Solana

Secretary General of the Council of the European Union
[Broadcast by Save Armenia Action Group]

April 9, 2008

Dear Mr. Solana,

As you well know, Serzh Sargsyan was today sworn into office as the third
President of the Republic of Armenia with all due pomp and ceremony. He swore to
lead the citizens of Armenia in harmony and respect, and to protect their rights.

And what were the citizens of Armenia, from whom he was protected by a veritable
army ready to open fire, doing at that very moment?

Allow me to explain, Mr. Solana. Some were busy laying flowers to mourn relatives
and friends killed by Sargsyan's forces, to the background of Jazz music and
balloons welcoming Sargsyan as president. Others, mostly women and children, were
being brutally beaten only steps away from the site of the inauguration. One
elderly woman in particular was being kicked and dragged through the streets by
Sargsyan's forces. Still others—again mostly women and children—wondered when
their husbands and fathers would stop their hunger strikes and be released from
prison for crimes they did not commit.

And yet, Mr. Solana, today you congratulate Sargsyan. One wonders what you
congratulated him for. For massive fraud, relentless repressions and political
persecutions? Or, as the harbinger of Democracy and the staunch champion of Human
Rights?

Do tell, Mr. Solana, does your definition of Democracy and Human Rights condone
elderly women being dragged on the streets? Does it welcome the beating of
innocent children?

Would you have liked to see your own grandmother under the boots of policemen, Mr.
Solana?

The initial report of the monitors was to a large extent responsible for the
carnage of March 1 and its aftermath. The Chairman-in-Office, Ikka Kanerva, whose
impartiality and ethics has since been questioned in supermarket tabloids around
the world, hastened to join the OSCE assessment of the elections as essentially
"democratic". Yet for over 70% of the citizenry of Armenia, Kanerva's positive
assessment was an outrageous and politically motivated position and raised serious
questions about the term they have heard from the European Union and its hallowed
institutions ad nauseam—Democracy. Your recent congratulatory message to a man
whose criminal record is only too well known casts into doubt Europe's commitment
to true Democracy. But above all, it elevates the agony and humiliation of the
vast majority of the citizens of Armenia to unprecedented heights.

For the future, Mr. Solana, it would be expedient to desist from degrading the
once lofty ideas of Democracy and Human Rights into idle political parlance. Human
beings, especially those living in totalitarian states such as Armenia, need such
ideals to face the brutalities and injustices that has become part of their every
day life.
Thank you.

Penelope Morrison

San Francisco, California