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06/20/2005
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1) Turnout High in Karabagh Parliamentary Election
2) Lebanon Opposition Vows Change after Winning First Post-Syrian Polls
3) Oskanian Sees More Progress in Karabagh Talks
4) New Monument at Montebello Soorp Khatch Church
5) Gold Expo to Take Place in Yerevan
1) Turnout High in Karabagh Parliamentary Election
YEREVAN (Combined Sources)–In the fourth parliamentary election since its
independence in 1991, voter turnout in Mountainous Karabagh Republic’s (MKR)
June 19 election was high. The country’s Central Electoral Commission
confirmed
73.6 percent visited polling stations.
Observers from several countries–including Armenia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan,
Ukraine, France, the Czech Republic and the US–expressed their satisfaction
with the elections, adding that they did not witness serious voting
violations.
MKR President Arkady Ghukasian promised an honest vote and warned against any
actions which could harm the country’s image.
A day before the elections Ghukasian stated, “All attempts at violations,
whoever the author, will be denounced and initiators punished with the full
severity of the law.”
The ballot was held at 274 polling stations throughout Karabagh, as well as a
polling station in Yerevan to uphold the election rights of Karabagh citizens
staying in Armenia.
“The elections are of paramount international importance for
Nagorno-Karabagh,” Ghukasian said on Saturday. “We must show the world our
attitude towards the elections, which mirrors the irreversibility of
democratic
transformations and can promote the international recognition of the Republic
of Nagorno-Karabagh.”
Two thirds of parliament’s 33 seats were elected directly and the remaining
11, under a proportional system.
Results of the poll, which is being monitored by around 100 non-governmental
observers, are expected late on Monday or early Tuesday.
For the elections to be declared valid, at least 25 percent of the 89,000
people eligible to vote must turn out.
The Democratic Artsakh party, led by Ashot Ghulian, claimed the victory under
the proportional electoral system receiving 22,393 ballots, the Azat Hayrenik
(Free Homeland) came second with 15,381 ballots, and a bloc of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation and Movement-88 was third with 14,534 votes.
Under the majoritarian electoral system, seven candidates each from the
Democratic Artsakh party and Azat Hayrenik won at the polls.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, declared the elections illegal.
Qualifying the elections as an important step in strengthening democratic
institutions, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said, “Armenia greets the
recurrent parliamentary elections held in Nagorno Karabagh.”
According to him, the citizens of Karabagh expressed their political will and
chose the authorities to be responsible for the country and its people.
“The important thing for us is that those chosen by the people will always
have opportunity to present their wish and will have more serious contribution
to the regulation of the Karabagh conflict, as well as internal and social
issues of the country,” said Oskanian.
2) Lebanon Opposition Vows Change after Winning First Post-Syrian Polls
BEIRUT (AFP)–Lebanon’s main opposition alliance led by Saad Hariri swept all
28 seats up for grabs in Sunday’s decisive final round of the four-stage
parliamentary elections, Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh confirmed, ushering in
the first legislature not controlled by pro-Damascus factions since the end of
the 1975-90 civil war.
Hariri, whose five-time premier father Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a
February bomb blast that paved the way for the end of Syria’s long domination,
said it was too early to talk of following him into the prime ministership.
But he vowed to end what he said was widespread skepticism in Lebanon about
the possibilities of genuine reform.
“We have got to show people that we are not only here to talk,” he told a
nationally televised news conference in front of a huge portrait of his slain
billionaire father.
Hariri’s alliance now controls 72 of the 128 seats in parliament against 35
for the pro-Syrian alliance led by Shiite factions Amal and Hezbollah, and 21
for an unlikely alliance between Christian opposition firebrand Michel Aoun.
The new balance of power will allow Hariri to take the premiership if he
chooses, but he said he first wanted to try to win over his defeated rivals.
“We are trying to get a more broad alliance in discussion with other
parties,”
he said. “Once we achieve that, we will discuss about the prime ministership.”
Aoun already ruled out any possibility of joining a Hariri-led government,
accusing his rival of “vote-buying” and pledging to go into opposition but
there was no immediate word from the Shiite alliance.
The eight-seat majority won by Hariri’s bloc falls short of the two-thirds
majority required to unseat President Emile Lahoud but Hariri said in any case
he wanted to move cautiously.
“This is an issue that is quite sensitive in Lebanon,” he said. “We will move
with the sensitivity that it needs.”
The United States, which took the lead with former colonial power France in
sponsoring a UN Security Council resolution last September demanding the
withdrawal of all foreign troops, hailed the four-stage election as an
“important milestone in Lebanon’s transformation.”
“We have full confidence that the parliament and the forthcoming cabinet in
Lebanon will be committed to the type of genuine political, institutional,
economic reforms that the Lebanese people so desire and so deserve,” US
ambassador Jeffrey Feltman told reporters.
But a European Union observer mission noted a string of complaints about the
conduct of the vote, including a “substantial number of allegations of
vote-buying.”
It also called for an urgent overhaul of the Lebanon’s sectarian political
system, which reserves half the seats in parliament for the Christian
minority,
saying it breached its international obligations and the principle of equality
of votes.
The clean sweep in the final round in north Lebanon was a major coup for
Hariri, following an unexpected rout by Aoun and his allies in the previous
phase.
Hariri will now need to use all the business acumen he honed during nine
years
of running the family empire to put right an embattled economy, burdened by a
35.5 billion dollars debt.
The political turmoil sparked by his father’s murder in a massive
explosion on
the Beirut seafront has severely dented confidence. The central bank warned
last week that it expected gross domestic product to shrink this year with
inflation outstripping growth by two percentage points.
Hariri will also need to face continuing US-led international pressure for
the
disarmament of Hezbollah’s military wing, which still patrols the south to the
exclusion of the Lebanese army five year’s after Israeli troops withdrew.
During the campaign, Hariri, who made some electoral deals with Hezbollah,
spoke out strongly in favor of the “resistance”, in contrast to Aoun who
argued
its militiamen should be disarmed in accordance with last September’s UN
resolution.
3) Oskanian Sees More Progress in Karabagh Talks
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian added to renewed hopes
for a
breakthrough in the Mountainous Karabagh peace process on Monday, saying that
he and his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov made further progress at a
meeting in Paris on Friday.
Oskanian described the talks mediated by US, Russian and French
negotiators as
“positive” and “constructive.” “We have not yet managed to bring that issue to
a successful resolution,” he told reporters. “But common ground is in sight.”
Oskanian added that he will hold another round of negotiations with
Mammadyarov shortly after the mediators’ visit to the region scheduled for
mid-July.
Azeri officials also appeared satisfied with the outcome of Mammadyarov’s and
Oskanian’s first face-to-face encounter in months. “The pace of meetings and
the essence of the discussions, in my opinion, are promising,” Deputy Foreign
Minister Araz Azimov told the Azeri ANS television at the weekend.
The two ministers were expected to try to build on understandings reportedly
reached by the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan at a meeting on Warsaw on
May 15. The Armenian Foreign Ministry referred to the summit as a “yet another
step forward in the resolution of the Mountainous-Karabagh conflict.”
Oskanian cautioned that while the Paris talks proceeded in a “good
atmosphere,” he and Mammadyarov failed to live up to the presidents’
expectations. “The presidents took a step forward, albeit a small one, and
instructed us to build upon that and find some solution,” he said. “We failed
to do that in Paris.”
The current phase of Karabagh peace talks is part of what the parties and the
mediators call “the Prague process” that began a year ago and raised fresh
hopes for long-awaited peace.
4) New Monument at Montebello Soorp Khatch Church
MONTEBELLO–Special services were conducted at Montebello’s Soorp Khatch
church
on June 12, by Prelate Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, celebrating the
official opening of a memorial adjacent to the church.
The monument, dedicated to the memory of the late Vartig Garabedian, was
sponsored by her husband Raphael Garabedian, who was joined by his children
Mr.
and Mrs. Armen and Jenny Garabedian and Greg Garabedian at the opening.
Joining the Archbishop, both during the opening ceremony and during mass were
Soorp Khatch’s spiritual leaders Rev. Nareg Pehlivanian and Rev. Ashod
Kambourian, along with previous Montebello pastors Rev. Nareg Shirikian and
Rev. Papken Mauelian.
5) Gold Expo to Take Place in Yerevan
LOS ANGELES–Consul General of Armenia Los Angeles invites prospective
exhibitors to Jewelry 2005, due to take place September 29-October 3, in
Yerevan.
The Expo, sponsored by Armenia’s diamond and gold craftsmen, will feature
jewelry and related products to be available for purchase. Those interested
may
contact the Consulate 50 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
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