Month: April 2007

POSSIBLE ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL BECOMES NEW PM
By Hasmik Lazarian

Reuters AlertNet, UK
April 4 2007

YEREVAN, April 4 (Reuters) – Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on
Wednesday appointed Serzh Sarksyan as the Caucasus nation’s new prime
minister and he is now expected by many to run for president in next
year’s election.

Sarksyan’s name was put forward by the Republican Party, the biggest
group in parliament, after consultations with other parties this
week. The previous prime minister, Andranik Margaryan, died from a
heart attack on March 25.

Sarksyan’s cabinet will work until May 12 when Armenia, a nation of 3
million people, will elect a new parliament in a vote planned before
Margaryan died.

He may be re-elected prime minister after the election in which the
Republican Party, which holds a majority in parliament with its allies,
is expected to perform well.

But many believe his ambitions extend beyond the post of prime
minister since he has said he might run for president next year after
Kocharyan’s second — and last — five-year term in office expires.

The mood of many voters may be influenced by the fact that like
Kocharyan, Sarksyan also comes from the Nagorno-Karabakh area which
Christian Armenia annexed from Muslim Azerbaijan in a bloody conflict.

Kocharyan and Sarksyan held top posts in Karabakh during the war with
Azerbaijan that claimed more than 35,000 lives before a 1994 truce.

Sarksyan has been decorated with a top Armenian military order.

Armenia, bordered by Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and Iran, relies
heavily on financial and moral support from a huge diaspora in Russia,
Western Europe and the United States.

Kocharyan relieved Sarksyan, acting leader of the Republican Party,
of his other posts of defence minister and secretary of the president’s
security council which he had held since 2000.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT APPOINTS SERZH SARKISYAN PRIME MINISTER

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 4 2007

YEREVAN, April 4 (RIA Novosti) – Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
has appointed Serzh Sarkisyan to the post of the country’s prime
minister after relieving him from the post of defense minister,
the presidential press service said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, who held the post since May 2000,
died March 25 of a heart attack at the age of 55.

On March 26, President Robert Kocharyan accepted the Cabinet’s
resignation due to Markaryan’s death. The Armenian leader charged
the Cabinet with continuing its duties until a new one could be formed.

>>From 1996 to 1999, Sarkisyan was the interior and national security
minister, and in 2000 he resumed the powers of Armenia’s defense
minister, the position he held in 1996.

Parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled for May 12, and
following the first session of a new parliament the Cabinet will
resign once again.

SARKISIAN NAMED ARMENIAN PM
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 4 2007

President Robert Kocharian announced late Wednesday the widely
anticipated appointment of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian as
Armenia’s new prime minister.

In a separate presidential decree signed the same day, Sarkisian was
relieved of defense minister’s duties which he has performed for
nearly seven years. It was not immediately clear who will run the
Defense Ministry until the formation of a new government required by
Armenian constitution.

The constitution gives Sarkisian 20 days to form his cabinet and have
its composition endorsed by the president of the republic. He will
then have another 20 days to submit the cabinet’s plan of actions to
parliament for approval, meaning that the outgoing National Assembly
will almost certainly be unable to vote on it because of parliamentary
elections scheduled for May 12.

In any case, Sarkisian, who has long had the reputation of Armenia’s
second most powerful man, will have to step down immediately after
the elections in line with another constitutional requirement. He
will likely be re-appointed prime minister if his Republican Party
(HHK) win the vote.

Sarkisian’s appointment was essentially decided by Kocharian and
leaders of the HHK and two other government parties the day after
the sudden death on March 25 of Prime Minister Andranik Markarian,
also a Republican. They agreed that the HHK should continue to control
the post by virtue of having the largest parliament faction.

Even before Markarian’s death, Sarkisian, 52, was believed to be
planning to become prime minister as part of his apparent strategy
of succeeding Kocharian as Armenia’s president early next year.

A native of Nagorno-Karabakh and philologist by education, Sarkisian
rose to prominence during the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He
commanded Karabakh Armenian forces before being named Armenia’s
defense minister in 1993. He later served as minister of interior
and national security and briefly headed Kocharian’s staff until the
start of his second stint as a defense minister in May 2000.

BOOK REVIEW: NOVEL DETAILS HORRORS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Jenna Sauber

Columbus Dispatch, OH
April 4 2007

FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

In her debut novel, Skylark Farm, Antonia Arslan brings to light the
devastating events of what many consider to be the first genocide of
the 20th century — the killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire’s
Young Turks at the outbreak of World War I.

Arslan, an Armenian who has lived in Italy and taught at a university
there, has fictionalized her family’s story while using their real
names.

Yerwant Arslanian, the author’s grandfather, left home at 13
and traveled to Italy to study. His older brother Sempad, who has
remained in a small western Turkish town to raise his large family,
is well-known and loved throughout the community. Sempad tries to
catch up with Western fancies and is oblivious to the approaching war.

When the brothers’ father dies, Yerwant makes plans to visit Sempad
and his family at Skylark Farm, a family estate in the country. But
days before Yerwant is to depart with carloads of gifts, Sempad and
the other Armenian males of the village are murdered by a renegade
band of Turkish soldiers at the farm and buried in the freshly dug
ground of a tennis court.

With the men gone, the women have no choice but to leave in a
deportation caravan through the Syrian desert, led by Turkish guides
who pillage and rape the defenseless and starving group all the way
to Aleppo.

Yerwant and his half-brother Zareh breathlessly wait for news regarding
their remaining family members, aided by a distant relative who is
a Greek Gypsy, and a lame beggar who is torn between helping his
friends and the government in its plan to eliminate the Armenians.

Arslan’s heartbreaking tale, like the Holocaust, is horrific, a
chronicling of man’s inhumanity to man. But it is ultimately a story
of survival.

Simply written, Skylark Farm is told from the perspective of several
people on both sides of the genocide, including government officials,
the Arslan family, and even the accommodating wife of the French
consul in Aleppo.

Graphic and often horrifying, the details of the massacre and
death march through the desert make this novel much more than a
granddaughter’s re-imagining of her family history — it captures
a moment in time that changed the lives of tens of thousands of
people forever.

CHAIRMAN OF AZERBAIJAN CEC SAYS ARMENIANS ORGANIZE ELECTION GAMES TO ATTACH A LEGAL SLANT OF OCCUPATION OF AZERBAIJANI LANDS

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
April 4 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku/ Trend , corr S. Ilhamgizi/ Natig Mammadov, the
Chairman of the Azerbaijan Central Election Committee(CEC), has
made a statement that the initiative of Armenian separatists to hold
"presidential elections" on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh belongs
to Azerbaijan is an arbitrariness of a gruop of some persons. He
noted that any attempts to hold any election campaigns were illegal as
any other actions taken by Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh,
by adding that they were senseless.

According to the Head of CEC, Armenians organizes such election games
to attach a legal slant of their occupying the Azerbaijani lands.

"Each elections should reflect the will of the people, the majority,
and be certainly based upon the international law. Azerbaijanis,
who are local population of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region,
were expelled from there because of their national identity. It means
that the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh will not take
part in the forthcoming "elections", and their will will certainly
not be considered. On other hand, none of the arrangements, which
have been held in Nagorno-Karabakh up to now, have been based upon
either the Azerbaijani legislation or the international law," stated
the Chairman of the Central Election Committee.

Mr. Mammadov also noted that there had not been formed the insitute
of presidency in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Only
those elections campaigns are held on the territory of the country,
which are appointed by the state and official bodies.

ARMENIAN OMBUDSMAN LAMENTS LACK OF COURT INDEPENDENCE
By Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 4 2007

Armen Harutiunian, the state human rights ombudsman, complained on
Wednesday about a continuing lack of judicial independence in Armenia,
saying that local courts were the main source of citizen complaints
received by his office last year.

Presenting his first annual report, Harutiunian said almost 13 percent
of 1,247 complaints filed with the Office of the Human Rights Defender
had to do with decisions made by various-level courts.

"The number of complaints filed against courts shows that there is a
lot of distrust in the judicial system, which is supposed to be the
main institution of human rights protection," he said. "The courts
must become as independent as possible."

The 223-page report draws the same conclusion: "Although a defendant’s
disaffection with a guilty verdict can be deemed natural, the large
number of such complaints gives us reason to conclude that the
population’s trust in the courts is far from satisfactory."

Armenian courts rarely acquit criminal suspects and hand down other
rulings going against the wishes of law-enforcement and government
bodies. Many lawyers say this fact testifies to their lack of
independence. Some blame it on Armenia’s post-Soviet constitution
that gives the president of the republic the right to appoint and
dismiss virtually all judges. That authority was somewhat restricted
by constitutional amendments enacted in November 2005.

Harutiunian, himself a constitutional law expert, specifically
faulted the courts for rejecting just about every lawsuit against
controversial confiscations of land and house demolitions ordered by
the Yerevan municipality in recent years. "The courts rule that the
mayor can allow construction anywhere he wants," he said.

Yerevan courts continued to rule against owners of houses demolished
by municipal authorities as part of redevelopment projects implemented
in the city center even after Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared
the process unconstitutional last year.

Incidentally, the municipality was the second largest source of citizen
appeals to Harutiunian’s office in 2006, followed by the Armenian
police and the Ministry of Justice. Harutiunian said he will put the
Yerevan mayor’s office under closer scrutiny this year because of
"blatant" violations of the law alleged by many city residents.

ARMENIAN POLICE VOW TO SOLVE DEADLY SHOOTING
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 4 2007

The chief of the Armenian police pledged Wednesday to save no effort
to find and punish the perpetrators of a failed attempt on the life of
Gyumri Mayor Vartan Ghukasian, saying that at stake is the credibility
of the country’s security apparatus.

"This is a very impudent crime," Lieutenant-General Hayk Harutiunian
said of Monday’s late-night armed attack that left Ghukasian seriously
wounded and killed three of his bodyguards. The mayor’s deputy and
driver were also wounded and hospitalized.

"I consider it a gauntlet thrown down to us law-enforcers," Harutiunian
told RFE/RL. "The police have picked up the gauntlet and will do
everything to identify and punish the criminals. Nobody should
doubt that."

A convoy of two cars carrying Ghukasian, his top aides and security
guards came under fire shortly after it left Yerevan for Gyumri. The
official was returning to Armenia’s second largest city after attending
a meeting of the leadership of the governing Republican Party (HHK),
of which he is a member.

Armenia’s Police Service, National Security Service and Office of the
Prosecutor-General promptly launched a joint criminal investigation
into the deadly shooting. President Robert Kocharian told the heads of
the three law-enforcement on Tuesday to take "all necessary measures"
to solve the crime. No arrests have been reported so far.

"Nothing has been cleared up," admitted Harutiunian. "There are
definitely theories [of the crime] but we do want to publicize them,"
he added.

A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office likewise said
that the investigators are examining several different theories,
but refused to give details. It is not clear whether they think
the shooting may have had any connection with Armenia’s upcoming
parliamentary elections.

The Armenian police and prosecutors were already under fire over a
series of high-profile killings committed in broad daylight last
year. Among their victims were a senior member of the Yerkrapah
Union of Nagorno-Karabakh war veterans, a reputed crime figure, and a
high-ranking tax official. None of those killings have been solved yet.

Meanwhile, Kocharian visited on Wednesday a Yerevan hospital where
Ghukasian underwent surgery after being wounded in the abdomen.

According to the presidential press service, Kocharian spoke with
the wounded mayor and wished him a speedy recovery.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN REPUBLICANS TO UNVEIL ‘ANTI-FRAUD’ PLAN
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 4 2007

The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) will soon unveil a set
of measures aimed at preventing a repeat of serious fraud in next
month’s parliamentary elections, Justice Minister David Harutiunian
said on Wednesday.

The announcement came as the Central Election Commission officially
registered all 24 parties and one alliance that have applied for
participation in the elections under the system of proportional
representation. They will be vying for 90 of the 131 seats in the
National Assembly.

The remaining 41 seats will be up for grabs in single-member
constituencies across the country. More than 150 individual candidates,
most of them affiliated with or endorsed by various parties, have
filed for registration in those constituencies.

"We have no alternative [to holding democratic elections,]" Harutiunian
told RFE/RL in an interview. "There is such will [in the HHK,] and
right now the party is working on measures that will contribute to
the realization of that goal."

"I will be in charge of the effort. We are going to fight against
vote irregularities," he said.

Harutiunian said this will involve, among other things, the launch of a
telephone hot line for citizens witnessing vote buying, ballot stuffing
and other irregularities that marred presidential and parliamentary
elections held in Armenia until now. He declined to detail other
anti-fraud measures planned by a party that has for years been accused
of resorting to vote rigging to dominate Armenian politics.

The initiative is certain to be dismissed by the Armenian opposition
as a pre-election gimmick designed to mislead the public and the
international community. Some opposition leaders have already accused
the Republicans of planning to rig the elections scheduled for May
12. Reports in the Armenian press have said that local government
chiefs affiliated with the HHK are forcing civil servants and other
public sectors employees to join the party or face dismissal.

Harutiunian joined the HHK and was included on its electoral list in
February after months of media speculation about his political plans
for the near future. He said he had considered joining Prosperous
Armenia (BHK), another major pro-establishment party reportedly
sponsored by President Robert Kocharian, but eventually picked the
HHK. The minister admitted that Prosperous Armenia’s refusal to have
unpopular government members among its election candidates was one
of the factors behind his choice.

Harutiunian, who is widely regarded as Kocharian’s protege, denied
suggestions that the Armenian president "sent" him to the HHK as part
of his alleged efforts to hold the governing party led by Defense
Minister Serzh Sarkisian in check. "That is not true," he said. "I had
the freedom to choose between the two parties, and I made a choice."

KARABAKH TO ELECT NEW PRESIDENT ON JULY 19
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 4 2007

Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh will go to the polls on July 19 to elect
the disputed region’s new president, it was announced on Wednesday.

The date of the presidential election was set by the parliament of
the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

Arkady Ghukasian, the NKR’s current president who has been in power
since 1997, repeated earlier this year that he will not be seeking
a third term in office despite what he called numerous requests
ordinary people, prominent public figures and unnamed "famous foreign
diplomats."

A Karabakh law bars him from running for a third term. Commentators
in Stepanakert and Yerevan had suggested that Ghukasian could use the
adoption of Karabakh’s first-ever constitution in a referendum last
December to circumvent this restriction by declaring a new countdown
of presidential tenures.

In a February 21 statement, Ghukasian claimed that the NKR constitution
does allow him to remain in power. But he said he has decided to step
down because he believes that would make Karabakh’s political system
more democratic and improve its image abroad. The 49-year-old former
journalist has so far avoided endorsing anyone for the presidency.

Among the likely election frontrunners are Bako Sahakian, chief of
a local security service, and parliament speaker Ashot Ghulian.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SERZH SARKISIAN APPOINTED ARMENIAN PM

Interfax, Russia
April 4 2007

YEREVAN. April 4 (Interfax) – Armenian President Robert Kocharian has
appointed Serzh Sarkisian prime minister, discharging him from his
duties as defense minister and secretary of the country’s Security
Council, the presidential press service said on Wednesday.

Sarkisian heads the Republican Party, which controls the seat of
prime minister under a coalition agreement in parliament.

In his capacity as premier, Sarkisian succeeds Andranik Margarian,
who died recently.

The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 12.