All goes quiet in Armenian capital

By Frale Oyen
(Editor's note: This piece was written on March 4 in Yerevan, Armenia.)
All remains quiet in the Armenian capital Yerevan.
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The city remains locked down following violent clashes this past Saturday between security forces and demonstrators contesting the results of the country's recent presidential election. This was the worst civil violence in Armenia since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The government has imposed a state of emergency, which will remain in effect until March 20. Much of the capital has been cordoned off. Residents have been warned against gathering in groups and a press blackout has been imposed.
Police and military presence in the capital remains high. Armored vehicles and tanks are parked along the streets. Soldiers stand guard outside government buildings in the city center and checkpoints have been set up on all major thoroughfares.
The atmosphere is subdued but local residents are determined to carry on as normal. Folks are heading off to work, to school and to the shops. Flower sellers and food vendors are ignoring the heavy military presence, setting up their tables and peddling their wares amid groups of soldiers.
On the surface, it's business as usual. However, just about everywhere you go, people are quietly discussing the events of this past weekend. All are uneasy about what will happen after the state of emergency is lifted.
Main Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan has vowed that the protests would continue. He maintains that the election process was rigged to ensure the government's favored candidate, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, would emerge victorious.
Ter-Petrosyan has asked the Constitutional Court to nullify the results of the Feb. 19 election. The case was heard today and all motions were denied.
Local attorneys do not think the verdict will lead to a public outcry or demonstration but many in the community are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Officially, eight people died and more than 100 were injured in the March 1 confrontation, which began early in the day when police stormed Liberty Square. Ter-Petrosyan supporters had been holding rallies and nightly vigils there since Feb. 20.
Eyewitness accounts, however, indicate the number of deaths and injuries may be higher, but under the state of emergency imposed, journalists and mass media outlets are not allowed to disseminate any information other than that issued by official media sources.
The violence escalated when Opposition supporters, who regrouped in another part of town, clashed with security forces outside the French and Italian Embassies in central Yerevan Saturday evening.
The result: chaos and mayhem. People were beaten. Cars torched. Property damaged. Businesses looted.
Barbara Edin, who lives close to the French Embassy and who watched the night's events unfold from her back window. "It was bloody, very bloody," she said.
American Robert Evans, who lives by the Russian Embassy in downtown Yerevan, where demonstrators were throwing Molotov cocktails and where sounds of small arms fire was heard, said a lot of "reprehensible actions were committed by both sides."
The U.S. Embassy continues to advise citizens living outside the capital to stay away and those living in downtown Yerevan to "exercise caution, avoid any large groups and minimize unnecessary movements outside."
Some, fearing further escalation in the violence, have prepared for the worst. Mary Ann Coxson and her husband, who is working in Armenia on a USAID project, have each packed a small suitcase and are keeping their passports close in case they get the call to evacuate.
Hopefully, it won't come to that.
Frale Oyen and her husband, Fredrik, who works for HSBC Bank, currently live in Yerevan, Armenia. She worked for the Pacific Daily News from 1989 to 1995.