Member of the National United Party (NUP), the Organization for the Independence of Armenia. A friend of Ukrainian political prisoners.
Son of Hryhor Arshakovych Markosyan (1908–1986) and Peprone Levonivna Markosyan (née Akopyan) (1913–1996). His grandfather, Levon Yenokovych Akopyan (b. 1880), was sentenced in 1930 by an NKVD “troika” of the Armenian SSR on charges of belonging to the counter-revolutionary illegal party “Dashnaktsutyun”; on January 15, 1937, he was sentenced to death. In 1963, the case was closed due to lack of evidence.
Razmik graduated from school in 1967. In 1968–69, he worked as a mechanic at the Institute of Polymers.
In 1969, he became a member of the underground National United Party (NUP), founded by Haykazun Khachatryan (b. 1919) and Stepan Zatikyan (b. 1946). In the autumn of 1969, Markosyan was drafted into the army but was discharged after six months. He worked as a mechanic (training master) at Yerevan State University. In 1972–74, he studied at the Faculty of Cultural Studies of the Khachatur Abovian Yerevan State Pedagogical Institute.
In 1972, after Stepan Zatikyan’s return from prison, Markosyan conducted preparatory and organizational work in the NUP, including setting up a modern printing press. In 1974, he printed a large run of two leaflets titled “Armenians!” and organized their distribution. (According to KGB experts, these leaflets could only have been printed in a state-run printing house).
On February 28, 1974, Markosyan was arrested. A leaflet he had written about Vardanank Day (Saint Vardanants), dedicated to the 1,036 saints who died in the 5th century for their faith and fatherland, was confiscated from him. Due to a lack of evidence, he was released after three days and warned by the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR, in accordance with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 25, 1972, “The Use of Warnings by State Bodies as a Prophylactic Measure.” But Markosyan did not cease his activities. He was arrested again on June 19, 1974, on charges of conducting “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” (Article 65, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Armenian SSR—equivalent to Article 62 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR and Article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR), as well as under Article 67 (“participation in an anti-Soviet organization”) and Article 213 (“document forgery”).
After mass arrests, the NUP adopted a legal path. NUP members began to openly promote the idea of independence, as laid out in the party’s program. On August 5, 1974, Paruyr Hayrikyan, Markosyan, and 10 of their party comrades declared a three-day hunger strike in the KGB pre-trial detention center in support of their appeal to UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, proposing the creation of an international commission to investigate the crimes of the Soviet government against the Armenian people and to allow for a referendum on Armenia’s secession from the USSR in accordance with the current Constitution.
The state prosecutor demanded a 4-year sentence for Markosyan in a strict-regime camp. Typically, judges reduced the term. But when Markosyan ended his defense speech with the call, “Long live a free and independent Armenia!”, the judge added 2 years of exile to his sentence.
In January 1975, Markosyan arrived at camp ZhKh-385/19 in the settlement of Lesnoy, Mordovia. Here he met representatives of various movements and generations, becoming particularly close with the Ukrainian Zorian POPADIUK and with a former UPA soldier, Roman Semeniuk, for whom he felt special respect. After 5 months, Markosyan was transferred to the hospital (ZhKh-385/3-3, settlement of Barashevo), where he met and became close with Vasyl STUS.
On September 15, 1975, Markosyan, along with three dozen young political prisoners of various nationalities, including four other Armenians, was transferred by special transport to the Urals, to a new camp—VS-389/37 (settlement of Polovynka, Perm Oblast). On October 30, Markosyan and several other prisoners marked the Day of the Soviet Political Prisoner for the first time in this zone with a hunger strike. On the eve of December 10—Human Rights Day—Markosyan and the Lithuanian Eugenijus Juodveršis were unexpectedly transferred to camp VS-389/35 (Vsekhsvyatskaya station, Tsentralny settlement), returned to the 37th camp 10 days later, and in February 1975—back to Mordovia, to camp ZhKh-385/3-5 (settlement of Barashevo), where Viacheslav CHORNOVIL and Vasyl DOLISHNIY were serving their terms.
In 1975, A. D. SAKHAROV named Markosyan among the prisoners of conscience with whom he shared the Nobel Prize.
On February 2, 1976, before the 25th Congress of the CPSU (Feb. 24 – Mar. 5), Markosyan adopted Political Prisoner Status and maintained it for 107 days, until May 20, when he was transferred to ZhKh-385/19 (settlement of Lesnoy). At the end of another term in the punishment cell, on March 12, Paruyr HAYRIKYAN was transferred to his cell for two days, in the hope that he would persuade Markosyan to end his protest. But HAYRIKYAN issued a statement supporting Markosyan’s protest and demanded that they be held in the same camp in the future: “If we can be in the punishment cell together, why can't we be in the camp together?”
After 30 days in the punishment cell, Markosyan and V. CHORNOVIL were hospitalized in the medical unit of ZhKh-385/3-3. They decided to improve the Political Prisoner Status. Twenty days later, Eduard Kuznetsov arrived at the hospital from the special-regime camp. He positively evaluated the document and added provisions concerning the special regime. This version became the basis for the Political Prisoner Status approved by other prisoners. It was observed by the prisoners of camp No. 19 (settlement of Lesnoy), who, starting in April 1977, conducted a 100-day phased hunger strike: Viacheslav CHORNOVIL, Vladimir Osipov, Mikhail KHEYFETS, Sergei Soldatov, Mykola Budulak-Sharyhin, Herman Ushakov, Mykhailo Karpenok, Babur Shakirov, Maigonis Raviņš, and a little later, Paruyr HAYRIKYAN joined them.
From May 1976, Markosyan was under constant pressure from the administration. For refusing to participate in political classes and march to music in the morning, he was deprived of the right to buy food, receive parcels, and have visits for a whole year.
On December 5, 1976, the day of the USSR Constitution, Markosyan and P. HAYRIKYAN held a hunger strike, sending statements to the chairmen of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the Armenian SSR, in which they insisted on the legality of the NUP, “which sets as its task to achieve the independence of Armenia within its historical borders by peaceful means, including through a referendum in the Soviet part of Armenia.” Their demand was supported by 15 political prisoners of various nationalities (Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, Lithuanians), who, following the example of V. STUS, declared themselves foreign sympathizing members of the NUP.
In a statement on the Day of Ukrainian Political Prisoners, January 12, 1977 (settlement of Lesnoy), Markosyan wrote that a “white” genocide was being carried out against the Ukrainian intelligentsia, and concluded his statement with the words: “Long live a free and independent Ukraine!” This statement was approved by CHORNOVIL and STUS. It became one of the points of his second conviction.
On February 12, 1977, Markosyan sent a statement to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Armenia confirming that Paruyr HAYRIKYAN was the secretary of the NUP.
On February 15, 1977, he sent a statement to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR demanding the introduction of Political Prisoner Status.
On April 21, 1977, Markosyan adopted Political Prisoner Status for the second time. A 30-day stay in the punishment cell sharply deteriorated his health. Markosyan was taken to the medical unit three times for gastric lavage. V. CHORNOVIL announced in the punishment cell that he was ending his one-day (every other day) hunger strikes and beginning an indefinite hunger strike to demand Markosyan's release from the cell. He was supported by other prisoners in the punishment cell. That same day, Markosyan was transferred to the medical unit, and a few days later, he and M. Budulak-Sharyhin were sent to the hospital at ZhKh-385/3-3 (settlement of Barashevo), and then to Yerevan. There, he declared a three-day hunger strike to protest the persecution of the NUP for demanding the independence of Armenia. From Yerevan, he was transferred by special transport plane to Sverdlovsk. From there, by plane to Perm, then by train to camp VS-389/35 (settlement of Tsentralny). Here he interacted with Ukrainians Yevhen SVERSTIUK, Yevhen PRONIUK, Valeriy MARCHENKO, and Yaromyr MYKYTKO, and prevented provocations against old political prisoners and insurgents Vasyl Pidhorodetsky and Stepan Soroka, for which he was again thrown into the punishment cell.
In February 1978, Markosyan was sent into exile to the Kenbidaiik sovkhoz (state farm) in the Kurgandzhinsky district of Tselinograd Oblast, Kazakhstan, where he worked in construction. Here he continued to participate in the actions of political prisoners, marking joint Armenian and Ukrainian actions with one-day hunger strikes.
In April 1978, he issued a statement against the accusation of Stepan Zatikyan in organizing an explosion in the Moscow metro.
In 1980, Markosyan fell victim to the “Olympic purge” (in connection with the XXII Olympic Games held in Moscow): in the last days of his exile, on April 27, he was arrested again. (At the same time, V. CHORNOVIL was arrested in exile in Yakutia on April 2, and V. STUS was arrested in Kyiv on May 14; many former political prisoners were arrested). His trip to Tselinograd, authorized by the deputy chief of the district police department, was classified as an escape (such a violation of the exile regime provides for administrative punishment—a fine or a reprimand, but not criminal liability). To convict Markosyan at any cost, the KGB retrieved his statements to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Prosecutor General of the USSR, written in 1977–1978, and accused him of “disseminating deliberately false fabrications that defame the Soviet state and social system” (Article 170-1 of the Criminal Code of the Kazakh SSR—equivalent to Article 187-1 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR and Article 190-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). In particular, he was incriminated for a draft statement to the Prosecutor General of the USSR dated January 12, 1979, which stated that the best figures of Ukrainian culture and art were arrested and imprisoned for their beliefs, and that a genocide was being carried out against the Ukrainian intelligentsia. All these statements had been officially sent to state bodies at the time, meaning they had passed censorship, and the drafts were in no way disseminated. He was also incriminated for oral statements about the occupation of Afghanistan and human rights violations. On the charge of “escape” (Article 198 of the Criminal Code of the Kazakh SSR), Markosyan was sentenced on August 13, 1980, to 2 years, and under the article of “slander”—to 3 years of imprisonment in a strict-regime camp. In total—3 years.
In several European countries (France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Scotland), committees were established for the defense of Markosyan.
On appeal, the verdict under Article 198 was overturned by the Supreme Court of the Kazakh SSR on October 14, 1980, due to the absence of a crime. The verdict under Article 170-1 was changed: only the charge of orally disseminating “false fabrications” remained. The term was reduced to one year of imprisonment. Markosyan served his sentence in a criminal camp in the village of Novy Uzen (Mangyshlak Oblast, Kazakhstan), then in the city of Shevchenko.
During his imprisonment, Markosyan was held in 37 pre-trial detention centers, transit prisons, and camps, and spent more than 200 days in punishment cells.
He was released in April 1981. After returning to Yerevan, Markosyan was under administrative supervision for 2 years. He worked as a mechanic, a process engineer, and the head of a cooperative.
In 1983, Markosyan enrolled in the Karl Marx Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1989.
In 1987, Markosyan and P. HAYRIKYAN created the Armenian Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners. On September 8, this Committee, along with the Ukrainian Initiative Group for the Defense of Political Prisoners, became part of the Inter-National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic republics). Markosyan participated in the meeting of the Inter-National Committee in Yerevan on January 12–14, 1988.
In 1987, Markosyan became one of the founders of the “Union for National Self-Determination” (UNS). He was a co-founder of the “Independent Army” and later a member of the command staff of the “Syunik” militia.
In 1998–2000, he was chairman of the public organization of former political prisoners, “Club-65.”
In 2000–2002, he was Chairman of the State Council for Religious Affairs under the Government of the Republic of Armenia and, by Presidential Decree, a member of the Human Rights Committee under the President of the Republic of Armenia.
On May 21, 2002, by decree of the Prime Minister of the RA, he was appointed advisor to the Prime Minister on religious and national minority issues.
For his great contribution to the cause of achieving Armenia’s independence and in honor of the 15th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia, on December 26, 2006, Markosyan was awarded the title of “Honorary Doctor of the Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction.” He is an Academician of the International Academy of Spiritual Unity of the Peoples of the World. Advisor to the Prime Minister of the RA.
Razmik Markosyan was a friend and comrade-in-arms of many Ukrainian political prisoners. He holds a special reverence for Vasyl STUS. He smuggled his poems, transcribed by V. OVSIIENKO, out of the Mordovian camps, and in 2010, he helped Rafael Papayan translate some of them into Armenian and publish them. On August 26, 2009, he visited the graves of V. STUS and V. CHORNOVIL at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.
Bibliography:
I.
Sviditel'stvuyet Razmik Markosyan [Razmik Markosyan Testifies] // UNS-x newspaper “Svoboda,” No. 2 (80), 1995. – December 25.
Razmik Markosyan. Ya mav chest buty blyzkym tovaryshem V. Stusa… [I had the honor of being a close comrade of V. Stus…] // Kurier Kryvbasu, No. 6. – 1999.
Razmik Markosyan. Moy Vasil Stus [My Vasyl Stus] // Den newspaper, No. 162-163 (3321-3322). – 2010. – September 10-11. – p. 6.
II.
Chronicle of Current Events, issue 34/04, December 31, 1974.
O povtornom osuzhdenii Razmika Markosyana: Dokument № 142 [On the Re-conviction of Razmik Markosyan: Document No. 142] [September 25, 1980] / Dokumenty Moskovskoy Khelsinkskoy gruppy. 1976 – 1972 / [Moscow Helsinki Group; “Memorial” society; comp. D.I. Zubarev, G.V. Kuzovkin]. – Moscow: Moscow Helsinki Group, 2006. – 592 p.: name index. – p. 470. Also: http://www.mhg.ru/history/224775A
Vasyl Stus. Tvory v 6 t. 9 kn. [Works in 6 vols., 9 books]. – Vol. 6, book 2. – Lviv: Prosvita, 1997. – pp. 99-101, 111, 114, 136, 144, 148, 152, 168, 203.
Chornovil V. Tvory: U 10-y t. [Works: In 10 vols.]. – Vol. 4. – Book 1. Lysty / Comp. M. Kotsiubynska, V. Chornovil. Foreword by M. Kotsiubynska. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2005, – pp. 13, 429-455-471-887; Vol. 4. – Book 2. Lysty / Comp. M. Kotsiubynska, V. Chornovil. Foreword by M. Kotsiubynska. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2005, – pp. 511, 549, 603, 607, 608, 635, 638, 639, 675, 685, 760, 765; Vol. 5. Publitsystyka, dokumenty, materialy “Spravy № 196” (1970 – 1984) / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2007. – pp. 617-621, 748, 749, 762, 837-841; Vol. 6. Dokumenty ta materialy (Lystopad 1985 – kviten 1990) / Comp. Valentyna Chornovil. – Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 2009. – pp. 215; 716-723.
Mikhail Kheyfets. Izbrannoye. V trekh tomakh. [Selected Works. In three volumes]. Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. – Kharkiv: Folio, 2000. – Vol. 1: Mesto i vremya. Russkoye pole. – pp. 31, 104; Vol. 2: Puteshestviye iz Dubrovlaga v Yermak, 1979-1987. – pp. 59, 73; Vol. 3: Ukrainskiye siluety. Voyennoplennyy sekretar. – pp. 101-103, 251, 252, 277, 283, 284.
Liudmila Alexeyeva. Istoriya inakomysliya v SSSR: Noveyshiy period [The History of Dissent in the USSR: The Newest Period]. – Vilnius – Moscow: Vest, 1992. – 350 p. – p. 76 (1st ed. – Benson (Vermont): Khronika, 1984. – 427 p.).
Yevhen Sverstiuk. Zirka Vasylia Stusa [The Star of Vasyl Stus] // Den newspaper, No. 162-163 (3321-3322). – 2010. – September 10-11. – p. 6.
Armenian National Movement: http://www.memo.ru/history/diss/books/alexeewa/Chapter6.htm
Razmik Markosyan: http://www.gov.am/ru/staff-structure/other/107/
Archive of R. Markosyan.
Project compiled by Vasyl Ovsiienko (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group) on February 11, 2011, based on materials from R. Markosyan and the Internet. Corrections by R. Markosyan from February 13, 2011, have been incorporated.
On the KHRG website http://museum.khpg.org since February 14, 2011.
MARKOSIAN RAZMIK
Razmik Markosyan visiting the grave of Vasyl Stus at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv on August 26, 2009. Photo by V. Ovsiienko.
MARKOSIAN RAZMIK