A standard detainee was able to have a walk for more than an hour a day. Those of us sitting for political reasons, like me, were taken outside five times in nine and a half months. We were sitting in a big coffin, nothing was happening, not even air was blowing through the bars. We were taken outside to the open air five times thanks to the Red Cross, and twice in nine months we were taken to a bathhouse. There was "Pele" coffee, we used to make special “water-heaters” with its metal, we boiled the water in the sink, poured it in a cup, and tricked ourselves into thinking that we were taking a bath. There were people sitting with us on clear criminal charges. We lived. We lived with them for nine and a half months. We made dinner, played dominoes. Whoever won made the meal because there was nothing else to do. It seemed that it should be the other way around: the one who lost would cook, and we would compete to see who would cook the dinner so that we could do something. There was nothing to keep ourselves occupied. I was sent books from home. We read tons of books. The books they sent me were such as not to cause heavy thoughts. Once a month, they came to visit me from home, and I exchanged the books they brought me with other people's books.
(In prison) I read a lot about the imprisoned. I reread Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago". I read Soviet dissidents, especially Shalamov. Drug addicts, murderers, whatever, they kept coming, and I spent months with them.
The opposition decided to halt the gathering at night. We did not see a rally in the morning. At night, tanks were brought into the city, Liberty Square was closed. Vazgen Sargsyan (Minister of Defense) made an official statement that even if the opposition candidate won with one hundred percent of the votes, they would not hand over power.
It took courage, because at that time many editorial offices were burnt down, newspapers were being closed, Azatutyun radio station (Radio Liberty) was closed. It had very strong positions (Azatutyun radio station), but Levon Ter-Petrosyan (the president) shut their air time with "Public Radio".
In 1995, on the wave of discontent, the first elections of independent Armenia were organized: they were the parliamentary elections, and the referendum on the Constitution was also held. The government used administrative levers, used the district's gangs, and there were also elements of election bribes. To hold the Referendum was a goal in itself for them, with votes of more than half of the voters being necessary. I was 22 years old, I helped the candidates of National Democratic Union (the main opposition party) and I was a representative of the Central Election Commission. I was going to participate in the sessions.
The most disgraceful things happened both during the preparatory phase and during the finalization of the voting. It was seen that what the people voted for was put aside, x-ed it out. There was ballot-stuffing everywhere in the police station. Apart from the state power structures, the Yerkhapah Union, which was created by Vazgen Sargsyan in order to keep the power, stood behind the state. The rallies before the elections were dispersed by those gangs, there were quite a lot of clashes, and I myself got into those clashes. We fought with sticks against the police cars. The authorities dispersed the rallies, people saw that it was a weakened state and became passive.
The year we entered the university, in 1990, there was a change of government. We were busy with entrance exams, but we followed those processes. For a year or two, it was still the situation of the Soviet Union: there were cooperative movements, life was in full swing, we were busy with our lessons. We were interested in politics, but everything did not seem and was not romantic. Since 1992, there was no electricity, no gas, there was a siege and a war. Student life was also deformed.
I grew up in a family of engineers and teachers. When the movement started in 1988, I was in school, I was studying physics, and strikes started. The beginning of it can be considered the ecological movement in the entire Soviet Union after the Chernobyl accident. Movements aimed at closing the nuclear power plant began. Those elements entered Armenia as well. Since the Soviet Union was weakening, Gorbachev's changes, "Perestroika" had begun, there was already freedom of speech, there was a moderate opportunity to express views. The discussions of the problems were done openly.
We were having discussions at the university, so we decided to go with our friends to help the National Democratic Union. It was a small party, there were people older than us, so we learned a lot. We got involved in their activities. At that time, there were no student movements, the student body was rather inert. The people participating in political processes were the same people who took part in the 1988 movement. The new student generation was more indifferent to all that.
Vahe Varsanyan was born in 1973 in Yerevan, the capital of Soviet Armenia. His father was an engineer, his mother - a teacher. He studied at the School of Physics-Mathematics. In 1990, he was admitted to the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of Yerevan State University. In the presidential elections of 1996, he was a member of the Yerevan regional electoral commission, and then a member of the Central electoral commission. Later, he joined the main opposition party, the National Democratic Union.
In 1995, the second parliamentary elections of newly independent Armenia took place, followed by the presidential elections after a year. The opposition party considered the results of these elections falsified. After the announcement of the results of the 1996 presidential elections, clashes took place between the police forces and the opposition. The opposition broke the gate of the parliament and broke into the building. As a result of the clashes, on September 26, 1996, Vahe Varsanyan was arrested along with his opposition friends and remained in prison until July 2, 1997. He was charged with inciting mass riots and participating in them. After his release, he left politics.
