Stepan Safaryan's open letter to Wilfred Martens

Stepan Safaryan's wrote an open letter to Wilfred Martens

Dear Sir:

As you know, on February 18 a presidential election took place in Armenia. It was contested primarily by the leaders of two parties—the ruling Republican Party and the opposition Heritage Party—both observer members of the EPP.

Before the campaign you had conveyed your warm wishes to both candidates, and expressed your hope for the conduct of a free, fair, and democratic election. Despite the incumbent’s numerous promises, the election was anything but free and fair. In fact its results were systematically falsified, as the incumbent Republican candidate tried to steal victory by a process of serial ballot-stuffing, ballot-stealing, and multiple-voting. It remains something of a miracle that, despite the incumbent’s vast abuse of state resources throughout the campaign, Raffi Hovannisian earned the majority of actual votes—not only in every major city, but also in most areas throughout the republic.

The attached file includes an analysis of the official election results produced by the independent organization Policy Forum Armenia (whose findings have been affirmed by several statisticians throughout the world, including Frederik Sjoberg of Columbia University), the Interim Report from ODIHR, and a testimonial letter from one of the distinguished OSCE observers himself. These documents speak for themselves—and complement a vast body of evidence, both testimonial and captured directly on video, of the fraud that took place on February 18. This is proof not merely of incidental violations here and there with no clear effect on the outcome, but rather of a deliberate, professional disenfranchisement of the Armenian citizen’s democratic will.

In short: Raffi Hovannisian earned a vast majority of votes in nearly every precinct where average voter turnout was registered, while Serzh Sargsyan received nearly or more than 100% of actual votes everywhere with impossible voter turnouts of 80-99%.

As the de facto president Serzh Sargsyan travels to foreign countries and receives congratulations on his false victory, Raffi Hovannisian—the candidate overwhelmingly elected by the Armenian people—has begun a hunger strike to demand recognition of the true election results. He has also been open to the possibility of a second round run-off.

Mr. Martens: Armenia has no future without democracy and free elections, without a legitimate president, without compliance with international standards and its own Constitution. The Armenian people simply can no longer afford to live under a ruler they did not elect. Their disenfranchisement has nearly robbed them of all faith in their nationhood. We urge you to reconsider, in correspondence with EPP’s very own values and standards, your decision to congratulate the incumbent.

We hope that the EPP will recognize the legitimate vote of the Armenian nation and will not contribute to the deepening of the political crisis which has developed in Armenia. Rather, it must become a true champion of democracy—not of this or that political party, but of the Armenian people, who made their rightful decision with definitive hope and courage on February 18.

If your presidential determination—which flies in the face of European benchmarks of the rule of law, civil liberty, and democratic justice—becomes the official institutional policy of the entire EPP family, we shall be compelled to reevaluate our membership in our great organization that has, most regrettably, deviated from the fundamental precepts, values, and commitments which we seemed to share, and which were the foundations of our application.

Sincerely yours,

Styopa Safaryan

Secretary General, International Affairs

Heritage Party / EPP