VAHAGN GHOUKASSIAN (Citizen of the Republic of Armenia) Erevan 64, tel. (374 1) 745 856,  e-mail`  against-terror@narod.ru   ,  sarjum88@freenet.am

I have become interested in politics at the very beginning of the struggle for independence of Armenia. I’ve taken an active part in the movement. During the first years I’ve become a member of AIM - a political party which was then doing its best to make Armenia an independent country. But I’ m against that party now. I stopped my membership in 1991 and in 1996 I officially stopped being a member of that party by an open letter (16.03.96, “Hayk”). I was the first person on hunger strike for referendum for Independence.

I had only one purpose. Ans it was to see Armenia as a democratic independent country.

In 1990-91, when Armenia became independet, I thought that the first stage of the struggle was over. I realized that the time had come for us to let the professionals take care of the country. I always realized that it would be very difficult for our country to solve all the problems that had emerged. 

As I had nothing else to do in politics during the second stage I decided to do something to help my family cope with the upcoming difficulties. During that period my 2^nd and 3^rd children were born. Now I live with my wife and three children. I have worked hard to support my familiy. I had a producing and trading firm with about 20 workers.Then like almost everybody else I had financial difficulties. Then I earned my living by repairing leather goods until my workshop was burnt down. But I have never complained of these changes, for I’ve always realized that there will be difficulties.

My workshop was not far from the State University and the café “Akwa”. In 1999 I came to an agreement with the owners of the café “Akwa” and closed my workshop. I used the money they gave me to buy a bus. I rermoved some of the seats and made a movable workshop out of it, which I placed not far from the place of my former one. 

I have to say that it would be more profitable for me to place my movable workshop near some fair, but by doing this I had two purposes. Not only did I want to support my family. It also had political purposes. I had noticed that after the changes in government in 1998 the democratic government tended to turn into a dictatorship again. This became the reason of my second involvment in politics. 

It’s obvious, that most of my clients were the students of Yerevan State and Economic Universities. And for those who were interested in politics my workshop was also a place of meetings. The future of our country is in the hands of those young people. And visiting me they had the opportunity to take part in the discussions about the political life of Armenia. I must say that in that workshop of mine I had a small table where I kept some political documents like the regulations of the National Assembly of R A, the Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitutions of Armenia and the USA, political newspapers, photos etc. So my bus, besides being a workshop, was also a tiny political school. Here young people realized that they were to take care of theit country tomorrow, that they had their rights and so on. I was hoping that I would see the results of my work in 10-15 years. I have to say that all the articles I have written were also born here. 

Here is my approach to politics. If today I have 100 problems I have to do my best so that in 10-20 years my children have 90 or maybe even 98 but at least not 100.

I am very interested in the events of October 27 because I think that if 5 or 50 people could enter the Houses of Parliament and murder the representatives of the legislative and executive bodies it means that it’s nothing for any murderer to enter someone’s house and kill everybody present. This means that all of us have to fight against terrorism. 

In the morning  June 26 my acquaintance called me and said that my workshop had been burnt down. It was my bus-“office”. I started there at once and found only a heap of ashes.

This was not the first case of violence against me. In the year 2000 on the order of high officials of the ministry of inner affairs I was called to the criminal department where I was kept for about 9 hours and was mutilated and set free. The reason was  the booklet “The Observer’s Version” written by me on the events of October 27. And now the military police has started up this case which has a history of one year. About a month ago on May 19, after publishing the article “An armend squat was waiting for the terrorists” in the “Armenian Times” somebody called me home and threatened by saying it. I didn’t stop writing. I would regret. Among other threats there were also the following phrases: “… you are playing with fire…” and “…read attentively the last line of the last page of your booklet…” I want to say that in that line I had written that politician Tigran Hayrapetyan was killed on May 9, 1999 in suspicious circumstances. I have applied to the police in this respect but have got no official reply yet so far. Violences continue so far. 

As a result I have lost about 3-3,5 thousand dollars (including the bus) but I must say that it was like losing a million for it was all my family had.

In addition to the financial side I also lost all the political documents, photos and papers I had. And all the information I had on the events of October 27^th is not an exeption. There was also a paper where I had written more than a hundred unrevealed secrets of the investigation. As you know, the “Armenian Times” has lately published the materials I had collected about the events of October 27^th. So these open questions were those which helped me to carry out this investigation.

And so these villains burnt my workshop. This was the only way I could support my family and besides, in this way I could do something for my country which is also very important for me. 

 I must say that there is no particular person who I think could have done this because during the 6 years I’ve been working in that area there has been no unpleasant incident between me and any of my clients. Everybody around used to respect me. This is why I think that these villains’ reason was not an everyday-life problem, but my interest in politica in general and especially my interest in the events of October 27^th and the journalistic investigation carried out by me. 

 I have to say that they have done what they wanted to do. I cannot carry on my journalistic investigation. But I must say that though I can’t do it right now because I need to do something to support my familiy, but as soon as this problem is solved I’ll continue my political activities. I do hope it won’t take me long.