Month: October 2006

PUTIN, KOCHARYAN TO DISCUSS NATGAS COOPERATION, SECURITY ISSUES

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Oct 30 2006

MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Monday will for the fourth time this year meet his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharyan. A high-ranking Kremlin administration official told
Itar-Tass that the sides will focus on cooperation in the natural
gas supply sphere and improvement of the situation in the Caucasus.

Kocharyan is arriving in the Russian capital on a two-day working
visit on Monday.

The two presidents’ meeting "will be continuation of the active
political dialogue between Russia and Armenia that matches the
strategic character of Russo-Armenian partnership," the Kremlin
administration representative believes.

According to the source, "the agenda of the meeting will centre on
issues of bilateral relations, new opportunities of economic ties,
and cooperation in the fields of energy, transport, investments, and
real economy where Russian interests are considerably represented
in the financial sphere and key branches." He also stressed that
"there will be a detailed discussion of prospects of cooperation in
the natural gas sector."

The Kremlin official said that "the discussion of interaction in the
trade and economy sphere will be one of the central subjects of the
meeting." The official noted in this connection "a positive tendency in
this sphere" – in the first eight months of 2006 trade between Russia
and Armenia reached 278 million US dollars, a 60-percent increase
from the same period last year. "Russia is the most important trade
partner of Armenia and one of major investors in its economy," he said.

The Kremlin official also highly assessed the existing "solid legal
base" of relations between Moscow and Yerevan. Thus, in 1997 the sides
signed a treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance and
declaration on ally partnership into the 21st century.

Over 160 interstate, intergovernmental, and interdepartmental treaties
and agreements have been concluded between Russia and Armenia.

"It is planned that in the course of the visit, the parties will
exchange opinions on the most important international and regional
problems. In principle, the two countries’ stances are very close or
coincide here," the official said.

According to him, the sides intend "to discuss issues of further
interaction within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
– the improvement and reforming of the CIS structure." He said,
"The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Eurasian
Economic Community (EurAsEC) where Armenia has obtained the status
of observer will also be a subject for discussion."

"It is planned to discuss issues related to the coordination of the
two countries’ efforts aimed at the improvement of the situation in
the Caucasus, using the potential of diverse cooperation, prevention
of new conflicts and settlement of remaining problems, in particular,
Nagorno Karabakh," the Kremlin administration representative said.
From: Baghdasarian

UNION OF TURKISH ASSOCIATIONS IN EUROPE PROTESTS FRANCE

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Oct 30 2006

BERLIN – The Union of Turkish Associations in Europe laid black
wreaths in front of French consulates general in four German cities
–Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich and Stuttgart– to protest the bill
criminalizing denial of so-called Armenian genocide that was approved
by French national assembly on October 12th, 2006.

Recep Yildirim, chairman of the Union of Turkish Associations in
Europe, said that France, which defended human rights and freedom of
expression, has blackened its history due to adoption of the bill.

Yildirim added, "we hope that the bill will not be approved in the
Senate."

WHY FRANCE SHOULDN’T LEGISLATE TURKEY’S PAST.
by Philip H. Gordon & Omer Taspinar

The New Republic, DC
Oct 30 2006

Historical Crimes
Only at TNR Online | Post date 10.30.06 Discuss this article

As European nations debate the idea of accepting Turkey
into their ranks, vestiges of the country’s authoritarian
nationalism–particularly its tendency to constrain free speech in
the name of national honor and unity–have antagonized proponents
of the European Union’s accepted liberal values. For example, when
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was recently prosecuted for claiming that
a million Armenians were massacred by the Ottomans during World War
I–in violation of a Turkish law that prohibits "insulting Turkish
identity"–Europeans howled in protest until the charges were finally
dropped. In recognition of his politics and his writing, Pamuk was
awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

More recently, the Turkish stance on the Armenian massacres themselves
is becoming an obstacle to its entry into the EU. On a recent visit
to Armenia, for example, French President Jacques Chirac suggested
that Turkey should not be allowed to join the EU until it recognizes
the Armenian genocide. The European Parliament has similarly requested
that Turkey "acknowledge" the genocide, although it has so far avoided
making that a formal condition for membership.

But, while liberal states that demand accountability for the past are
usually well-intentioned, they can also go too far–as new legislation
in France clearly shows. In a blatant ploy to win over France’s 500,000
residents of Armenian origin, the lower house of France’s parliament
passed a bill on October 12 that, if agreed to by the Senate, will make
it illegal to deny that the 1915 massacres of Armenians constituted
genocide. The Socialist-proposed bill, which gives sentences of up
to a year in jail or up to a ~@45,000 fine, passed by a lopsided vote
of 106-19, and it was supported by the two leading candidates in the
presidential election scheduled for next spring, Nicolas Sarkozy and
Segolène Royal. The parliament even rejected a proposed amendment to
exempt scholarly research from the reach of the bill.

Not surprisingly, the reaction in Turkey to all of this has been
furious. Well beyond the extremists demonstrating in the streets,
nearly all Turks–including the most liberal and pro-European
ones–resent seeing one of the most sensitive issues in their history
being used as a pawn in French politics. Pamuk himself, no flack for
the Turkish government, has criticized the French legislation. Turks
rightly see the legislation as a cynical ploy not only to win
Armenian votes but to put one more obstacle on the path to Turkey’s
EU membership, which France has formally, if unenthusiastically,
promised to negotiate. The backers of the new law claim that its
purpose is to facilitate Turkish-Armenian reconciliation; its effect
will likely be the opposite.

Worse, the French parliament’s vote is a dangerous step down a slippery
slope. If it is a crime to disagree that what happened to Armenians
90 years ago should be considered genocide, why stop there?

Shouldn’t it be a crime to minimize the impact of other historical
tragedies, such as colonialism or the slave trade? Should the
Turkish parliament pass a law making it a criminal offense to deny
that France practiced torture in Algeria or that a million Muslims
were killed there? Should African governments make it illegal to
deny that genocide took place in Rwanda? Once you go down that road,
it is hard to see where the line should be drawn.

Indeed, the new French legislation is just the latest illiberal
policy in Europe masquerading as liberalism. Since the end of World
War II, a number of European countries, including Germany, Austria,
and France, have passed laws against Holocaust denial. Proponents of
the laws argue that they allow these nations to atone politically for
their past sins, while working to ensure that Holocaust deniers could
not foster the same sort of anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust in
the first place. Now, however, they could also serve as inspiration to
scores of different ethnic and religious groups that wish to win legal
acknowledgement of their own past suffering and historical grievances,
as the Armenians have. But parliaments across Europe would be better
off taking the current legislation off the books than giving equal
treatment to every group’s claims. Do we really want the government to
start deciding that some historical views are acceptable but others
merit prison sentences? And would the historical narratives that won
legislative protection be those most clearly supported by "the facts"
or those which had the most powerful political support?

Moreover, though the laws against Holocaust denial were–emotionally
and politically–difficult to oppose, the consequences of compromising
free speech are becoming clear. This February, for example, several
months after European leaders defended the right of a Danish newspaper
to publish a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad that offended Muslims,
an Austrian Court sentenced historian David Irving to prison for
Holocaust denial. The trial exposed European free speech advocates to
charges of hypocrisy and undermined their efforts to convince Muslims
that their tolerance of the cartoons was based on principle–and not
a double standard.

To his credit–and despite his wish that Turkey acknowledge
the Armenian genocide–Chirac and his government opposed the new
legislation, arguing that history should be left up to historians,
not lawmakers. He took the same principled stance last year, when he
successfully opposed a law, backed by a majority in his coalition,
that praised the "positive role" of colonialism.

As Pamuk’s prosecution reminds us, Turkey’s own record on free speech
is far from pristine, and Turks would do well to be more open about
their past. Instead of prosecuting those who challenge the official
history, Ankara should support debating it openly and accepting its
scars. Already, there are signs that this is taking place. Last year,
Istanbul’s Bilgi University held a conference on Armenian history at
which a range of views were presented. Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan supported that conference, and he has also come out
in favor of a joint Turkish-American committee of historians to study
and report on the issue.

Turks should keep moving in this direction and do more to
acknowledge that atrocities–however characterized–occurred. But
these initiatives need to come from Turks themselves in a spirit of
reconciliation, instead of being imposed from the outside under threat
of prosecution. Ultimately, historians, not governments, should be the
ones to decide these sensitive issues. The response to illiberalism in
Turkey must not be illiberalism in France. What an irony if Turkey is
kept out of the EU because of its position on free speech by a country
that would put historians in jail for questioning the official line.

Philip H. Gordon is a senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the
Brookings Institution. Omer Taspinar is a professor at the National
War College and a research fellow at the Brookings Institution.

30&s=gordontaspinar103006

–Boundary_(ID_39t6 MRDa4UWN/4MPFyYFZA)–

TOBB CHAIRMAN HISARCýKLýOðLU: THE MOOD IN BUSINESS CIRCLES IS BAD

The New Anatolian, Turkey
EkoTurk News Agency / Artvin
Oct 30 2006

Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Rifat
Hisarcýklýoðlu has said the mood in business circles is bad due to
latest economic developments.

Participating in a joint meeting of the provincial chamber in the
northeastern city of Artvin, Hisarcýklýoðlu assessed the economic
and political situation in Turkey.

The TOBB chairman reminded that protested bills rose by 47 pct in
the first half of the year over the last year’s same period, adding,
32 pct of business people think course of economic affairs will get
better while 30 pct think will get and that indicates "The mood in
business circles is bad".

Stating that he never allowed his institution to become a backyard
or frontyard of any political party, Hisarcýklýoðlu said he was
as close to Erdoðan, the Premier, as Baykal, the leader of main
opposition party.

The chairman underlined that the TOBB was over domestic politics and
he was well aware of that.

TOBB chairman Hisarcýklýoðlu drew attention to the importance of
foreign policies, and said, ‘If you cannot manage your foreign
politics, then you shake your economy. The mistakes at this field
costs much. It is not enough to be rightful in the international
arena. We landed in Cyprus in 1974 for just reasons, but who faced
embargoes? We accepted Annan Plan in 2004 despite some negative
aspects, but no promises were kept anyway. In Armenian issue, we said
we would open our archives, but Armenians are getting what they want
across the world. The important thing is to tell your just position
to the world not to react or do something. We could not achieve that.

We cannot make lobbying and promotion.’ On the pure economic front,
Hisarcýklýoðlu said, ‘They say let’s cut imports. But, that would lead
for the worse. The only solution is to raise production. Turkey may
enter the top 10 most developed countries in 20 years. On the condition
that the state to free us from shackles in our feet. Sectoral and
regional incentives must be introduced in Turkey. Only 6 provinces
are pleased about the current practice. We believe we can achieve
everything. Turkey which made only $2 bln exports 20 years ago,
now make $80 bln exports. Moreover, we make 64 pct of our exports
to EU countries. This has been done with Turkish entrepreneurs and
industrialists. We can achieve more.

We demand from the state to free us from our shackles.’

–Boundary_(ID_K6gkOzDFOKBn7RnNpEyGlQ) —

DJORKAEFF RETIRES AFTER NY DEFEAT

CNN International
Oct 30 2006

PARIS, France — Former France striker Youri Djorkaeff has retired
after his New York Red Bulls side were knocked out of the MLS playoffs
by D.C. United on Sunday.

A world champion on home turf in 1998 and a European champion two
years later, the 38-year-old was a hero in France for his spectacular
goals and never-say-die attitude.

Djorkaeff won his first medal in 1991 in the French Cup with Monaco
alongside future national team mate Emmanuel Petit.

Both have now called it a day, with Djorkaeff becoming the 17th of
the 1998 world champions to hang up his boots.

"Now we’re back to square one," said Djorkaeff . "I don’t feel
nostalgic. I’ve known everything and I had the feeling it was time
for me to go.

"Physically, I was still in good shape but mentally I was not there
anymore."

Djorkaeff, nicknamed the Snake, will live in New York City with his
wife and children until the end of the school year.

He said his best memory as a player was the 1998 World Cup, when
France beat Brazil 3-0 in the final at the Stade de France.

"There was something magical in that team," he said.

Djorkaeff, who has Armenian origins, scored 28 goals in 82
internationals, the most important being a superb volley from
outside the box that gave France a 2-1 win over Spain in the Euro
2000 quarterfinals.

Born in Lyon on March 9, 1968, Djorkaeff started his career in Grenoble
at the age of 16, before leaving for second-division Racing Strasbourg
in 1989.

He was then transferred to Monaco a year later, becoming the league’s
top scorer in 1994 with the principality team.

In 1996, he won the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Paris St Germain
before leaving for Inter Milan, where he spent three years, helping
the club win the UEFA Cup in 1998.

Before moving to the other side of the Atlantic, Djorkaeff played
for Kaiserslautern and spent over two years in the English Premier
League with Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.

DIGGING FOR LOST TREASURE IN DARBANDYKHAN
By Lara Fatah

Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq
Oct 30 2006

An Italian team of archeologists travel to the Berkl area near
Darbandykhan to lay the groundwork for an extensive excavation of a
Sassanian monument, due to take place in the Spring.

Once upon a time, or as the Kurds would say, habu nabu, there was an
Armenian King, Nerses, that ruled the Sassanian Empire (226-651 AD),
which included Kurdistan within its borders. Standing high on a hill
in the Berkl area near Darbandykhan is one of the only known remaining
Sassanian monuments, and it is a monument to King Nerses.

The location of the monument has been known since the turn of the
last century, but due to the unrest that followed in the region, it
was not until the present day that the site could be professionally
excavated. In conjunction with the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG), an Italian team of archeologists from the Instituto Italiano
per l’Africa e l’Oriente, is currently carrying out a short research
dig at the site, in order to prepare for the full excavation they
intend to do in the spring.

Examining the actual monument has not been easy, because not only are
there later constructions on top of it, an earlier excavation that
removed some of the inscribed stones of the monument, had caused
other stones to become scattered. The Italian team also fears that
some of the bricks may have been looted over the past 10-15 years.

"We have known for a few years what the general gist of what is
inscribed on the two main walls, but fully excavating the site, will
allow us to understand the inscription and how it fits into what we
already know," says Barbara Faticoni, one of the archeologists.

"This is the second most important known inscription from the Sassanian
period, so it is very important that we now have the chance to study
it in depth," she adds.

Faticoni is looking to when the team returns in the spring to complete
their work and is excited to learn more about the actual structure
of the monument; "Because there are so few surviving examples of
Sassanian architecture, I’m looking forward to determining how the
monument actually looked, it’s important for us to learn these things,
we will hopefully be able to reconstruct some of the monument too,"
she enthuses.

Faticoni is obviously passionate about the site as she confidently
strides around its perimeter in her dusty work clothes and her
sun-kissed face. She is a stark contrast with the three young Kurdish
girls the Italians are training, who in their clean and pressed
jeans with large sombrero-esque hats perched on their heads hover
uncertainly on the perifieries of the site.

"I think they are a little scared of doing something wrong and I’m
not sure they realized we would actually involve them in the process,
but it is the best way for them to learn," says Faticoni.

Working with Faticoni on the dig is Fabrizio Sinisi, the linguistic
expert, who says that the only real problem that they have encountered
is a language barrier.

"Communicating with the Kurdish workers has been fun at times, but
even that is not too big a problem because we are used to working
in foreign countries," he says. Sinisi also says that while the
monument may look impressive sitting on its hill in the countryside
around Darbandykhan, its distance from the town has given them a
few logistical problems. Although the team was winding down its
research dig and refilling all the trenches that they had dug, they
were enthusiastically anticipating their return when they will not
only complete the excavation but open an Italian cultural center in
Erbil and start teaching at the University of Salahaddin.

etail.asp?LangNr=12&RubricNr=&ArticleNr=14 528&LNNr=28&RNNr=70

TRIAL LAWYER ‘BULLIED’ BY DISTRICT PROSECUTOR
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 30 2006

Armenia’s bar association demanded on Monday tough disciplinary action
against a district prosecutor in Yerevan who allegedly intimidated
and threatened to imprison a trial lawyer representing a criminal
suspect. The Office of the Prosecutor-General was quick to reject
the demand.

The attorney, Liana Balian, says that Gevorg Tovmasian, the chief
prosecutor of the city’s Avan and Nor Nork districts, and two other
law-enforcement officials visited her on Saturday after she refused
to obey his verbal orders to come to his office.

"Without a court order or any other legal grounds, they burst into my
apartment and started threatening me in the presence of my parents and
my daughter," Balian told RFE/RL. She claimed that Tovmasian shouted
abuse and threatened to prosecute and beat her if she continues to
vigorously defend a man charged with rape.

The suspect, Norayk Rubenian, was taken into custody earlier this year
despite protesting his innocence. In a rare setback for prosecutors,
Balian succeeded in having a district court release him on bail on
Friday, the day before the alleged incidents. However, the court
allowed the prosecutors on Sunday to again arrest the suspect, citing
"additional accusations" leveled against him.

The lawyer’s allegations were picked up by the leadership of Armenia’s
Chamber of Advocates that held an emergency meeting on Monday and
demanded that Tovmasian be brought to account. "Why did the prosecutor
go to the lawyer’s home?" its chairman, Ruben Sahakian, said. "What
was he doing there on Saturday?"

But the Office of the Prosecutor-General defended the prosecutor’s
actions, saying that he visited Balian to "explain" that she and
her client have to cooperate with the ongoing criminal investigation
into the rape allegedly committed in 2004. "The district prosecutor
acted within the boundaries of his powers," a spokeswoman for the
law-enforcement agency, Sona Truzian, told RFE/RL. She said the
suspect was planning to flee the country and therefore has to be kept
in pre-trial detention.

Acquittal of individuals charged with various crimes is extremely rare
in Armenia, with judges siding with prosecutors in the vast majority
of cases. According to official statistics, Armenian courts handed
down some 1,500 verdicts on criminal cases in the first half of this
year and only four of them cleared defendants of any wrongdoing.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OFFICIAL ESTIMATES POST-SOVIET EXODUS
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 30 2006

At least 900,000 people have left Armenia since the break-up of the
Soviet Union and the resulting near collapse of the Armenian economy,
a senior government official said on Monday.

"According to our estimates, the number of people that have
out-migrated from the country since 1992 varies between 900,000 and one
million," Gagik Yeganian, head of the Armenian government’s Migration
Agency, told RFE/RL.

The number of Armenians who have gone abroad, mainly to Russia,
in search of employment has long been a matter of contention, with
various government officials, independent experts and politicians
suggesting different figures. Citing a census conducted five years
ago, the government puts Armenia’s current population at, at just
over 3 million, sharply down from the late Soviet level of 3.8 million.

The census also found that some 200,000 people reside and work on a
"temporary" basis. Its results are challenged by opposition politicians
who say that the out-migration occurred on an even larger scale.

Yeganian claimed that the exodus all but ground to a halt in 2001 and
insisted that Armenia is not facing a demographic crisis at present,
even if thousands of its citizens continue to seek asylum in the
West and European Union countries in particular for economic reasons
each year.

Experts agree that a small percentage of the Armenian migrants began
returning to their homeland several years ago, buoyed by its slow
economic recovery. But they also point to the difficult reintegration
of the returnees into Armenian society resulting from a continuing
lack of jobs.

Yeganian said the government has no specific plans to spur the modest
repatriation and is using instead its scarce resources to improve
the plight of people that have chosen to stay in Armenia. He also
dismissed hopes for a sizable increase in the country’s as a result
of a recent constitutional change that enables foreigners of Armenian
descent to become citizens of Armenia. "To hope that the influx of
permanent residents will increase after the introduction of dual
citizenship would be wrong," he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOCHARIAN CONFIRMS RUSSIAN CONTROL OF IRAN-ARMENIA PIPELINE
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 30 2006

President Robert Kocharian confirmed on Monday that Russia’s state-run
Gazprom monopoly will gain a controlling stake in Armenia’s national
gas distribution company that will almost certainly own the incoming
gas pipeline from Iran.

Gazprom’s board approved and announced on Friday the issuance of
additional shares in the ArmRosGazprom (ARG) operator, saying that it
will buy all of them and thereby raise its ARG stake from 45 percent
to 58 percent.

Kocharian confirmed the information as he met with Russian President
Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. "I would like to immediately inform you
that all of our serious agreements on energy projects with Gazprom
are entering the implementation phase," he said in remarks posted
on the Kremlin’s website. "Just a few days ago, they were finally
approved by the Gazprom board."

The Armenian government has until now owned another 45 percent of ARG,
with the remaining 10 percent belonging to ITERA, a private Russian
gas exporter.

There has been no word yet on whether the Russian giant will
pay Armenia anything for gaining control of its gas distribution
network and further tightening the Russian grip on the Armenian energy
sector. All the signs are that the ARG takeover is part of last April’s
controversial deal that allowed Armenia to avoid a doubling of in the
price of gas imported from Russia until January 2009 in exchange for
handing over more energy assets to Gazprom.

One of those assets is the incomplete but modern Fifth Unit of the
country’s largest thermal power plant located in the central town of
Hrazdan. Gazprom initially confirmed but later refuted reports that
it will also get hold of the Armenian pipeline from Iran as part of
the deal. Armenian officials also denied that.

Nonetheless, Russian control of the first 40-kilometer Armenian section
of the pipeline, slated for completion this winter, now seems a forgone
conclusion. Prime Minister Andranik Markarian revealed last week
Yerevan’s plans to incorporate the pipeline into ARG, saying that "it
would be illogical to have two gas distribution networks in Armenia."

The ARG chief executive, Karen Karapetian, likewise indicated on Friday
that his company’s ownership of the pipeline is imminent. "The question
is whether the Iran-Armenia pipeline will be a separate enterprise
or will be given to ARG," Karapetian told reporters. "In my view,
giving to ARG would be logical." "ARG has offered to take over that
pipeline," he added.

The pipeline in question was supposed to end Armenia’s strong
dependence on Russian gas and other energy resources. Critics say that
by placing it under Russian control the Armenian government would
only deepen that dependence. Moscow is thought to have already made
sure that the pipeline’s diameter is not large enough to allow Iran
to export its gas to Georgia and other countries via Armenia.

This and other economic issues apparently topped the agenda of
Kocharian’s talks with Putin, who described as "shameful" the fact
that Russia is only the third largest foreign investor in Armenia. "I
say ‘shameful’ because it is odd that Russia does not occupy the first
place in terms of investments in the economy of its strategic partner,"
Putin said.

It is not clear if the two men discussed the Kremlin’s controversial
blockade of Georgia which is seriously hurting Armenian companies
trading with Russia. Meeting with their Russian colleagues earlier
this month, senior Armenian lawmakers exposed Yerevan’s frustration
with Moscow’s perceived failure to reckon with the interests of its
main regional ally in its dealings with the pro-Western government
in Tbilisi. Some of the visiting Russian parliamentarians demanded,
for their part, that Armenia make a clear-cut "choice" between Russia
and Georgia.

However, the Kocharian administration has avoided taking sides in
the latest Georgian-Russian confrontation, expressing hope for its
peaceful settlement. Parliament speaker Tigran Torosian reiterated
those hopes at a meeting with the Georgian ambassador to Armenia,
Revaz Gachechiladze, on Monday. According to Torosian’s office,
Gachechiladze praised Yerevan’s stance as "balanced and acceptable
to the international community."

PROSECUTOR’S BROTHER ELECTED YEREVAN DISTRICT CHIEF
By Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 30 2006

A brother of Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian swept to a predictable
victory in a weekend election in Yerevan’s western Ajapnyak district
that has long been considered his de facto fiefdom.

According to preliminary results of the election released on Monday,
Ruben Hovsepian won 76 percent of the vote. His main challenger,
Gagik Sargsian of the governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun), came in a distant second with 13 percent, followed
by a third candidate who got 10 percent, official figures showed.

Only 25 percent of Ajapnyak’s 73,000 or so eligible voters cast their
ballots, underscoring a widespread sense that the outcome of the vote
was always a forgone conclusion. Incidentally, all three candidates are
affiliated with Aghvan Hovsepian’s supposedly apolitical Nig-Aparan
organization that unites prominent natives of a region in central
Armenia.

Sargsian was quick to concede defeat. "It can be said that the
elections took place without violations," he told RFE/RL. "There were
a couple of minor violations that did not affect the election results."

The Dashnaktsutyun activist said at the same time that Sunday’s vote
was not fair, alleging that local voters were bullied and bused to
polling station in droves by Hovsepian’s loyalists. He said he stood
no chance of countering his rival’s "huge administrative leverage."

The chairman of the district election commission, Samvel Yeranian,
said he has received no written protests from election officials
or candidate proxies as of Monday afternoon. He said no violence or
other serious incidents were reported on voting day.

Ajapnyak has long been the scene of a bitter rivalry between two local
clans that flared up into violence during elections held there in the
past. Artsrun Khachatrian, Ajapnyak’s previous mayor representing
Hovsepian’s faction, has ruled the district for the past six years
and was preparing for another showdown with Arman Sahakian, a young
leader of the rival clan linked with the governing Republican Party
of Armenia (HHK).

Sahakian was effectively forced to pull out of the race after the
HHK’s governing board refused to back his candidacy in August at the
apparent behest of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian. The unexpected
move fueled speculation about a deal cut by Sarkisian and Hovsepian.

The incumbent Ajapnyak mayor decided not to seek reelection and to cede
the post to the influential prosecutor’s brother shortly afterwards.

The election outcome will solidify Ajapnyak’s status as a key
stronghold of Aghvan Hovsepian. The latter reportedly controls several
lucrative businesses in the area and is thought to have far-reaching
political ambitions. His Nig-Aparan group is the driving force behind
a recently formed political party which intends to make a strong
showing in next year’s parliamentary elections. Leaders of the party,
called Association for Armenia, have not ruled out the possibility
of forming an electoral alliance with the HHK.