Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIE : IL MANGE SON BULLETIN POUR PROTESTER CONTRE LES ELECTIONS

Le Monde, France
18 fevr 2013

Environ 2,5 millions d’Armeniens etaient appeles a se prononcer pour
l’election presidentielle lundi 18 fevrier. Artur Minassian, lui,
ne votera pas. Cet activiste a prefere manger son bulletin pour
protester contre la victoire annoncee du president deja en place
Serge Sarkissian.

La fin de la campagne electorale a ete assombrie par une attaque
contre un candidat au scrutin, Parouïr Haïrikian, blesse par balles
a l’epaule le 31 janvier.Les trois principales forces d’opposition
ont refuse de participer a cette election.

Article lie : Test democratique en Armenie avec le vote pour la
presidentielle

video:

ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA: SERZH SARGSYAN GETS 58% OF VOTES ACCORDING TO EXIT POLLS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 18 2013

At 8.00 p.m. local time the presidential elections ended in Armenia.

The precincts have been closed throughout the country.

The President of Armenia is elected for a five-year term. A total of
1,988 precincts are registered throughout the country.

To note, about 2.5 million people have the right to vote. More than
half of the registered voters must take part for the elections to be
recognized valid. To win in the first round, a candidate must receive
a majority of the votes (50%+1). If not, a runoff will be held in
two weeks.

The exit polls suggest incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan got victory
in the first round of presidential elections.

Baltic Surveys/The Gallup Organization and Armenian Sociological
Association issued results of the exit poll conducted by the order
of Armnews television.

The exit poll revealed Serzh Sargsyan got 58%. The second is Raffi
Hovannisian with 32%. Hrant Bagratyan and Paruyr Hayrikyan have polled
3 percent each. Arman Melikyan, Andreas Ghukasyan and Vardan Sedrakyan
got 1 percent of votes each.

ARMENIA LEADER: CANNY CHESS PLAYER WITH SOLDIER’S STEEL

Global Post
Feb 18 2013

Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian derives much of his popularity
from a strongman image as a veteran of the war with Azerbaijan but
is also a chess fanatic whose canny foreign policy resembles moves
on a chess board.

Sarkisian’s militaristic background is seen as the prime explanation
for the popularity which is expected to see him win Monday’s
presidential poll, being held at a time of fresh tension with its
neighbourhood foe Azerbaijan.

Sarkisian, 59, was born in Nagorny Karabakh itself, the lushly
beautiful region that translates as Black Garden but was the scene
of a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union fell that
left 30,000 people dead.

He held top military posts in the war, including the head of the
Karabakh defence committee and won respect for refusing to evacuate
his family out of the main Karabakh town of Stepanakert where they hid
in cellars to suffer the daily bombardments along with everyone else.

“People in Armenia are of course not unanimous about Sarkisian. But
his most positive characteristics, that all are agreed on, are that he
fought, he went through the war and he is one of the founders of the
Armenian army,” the director of the Armenian sociological association
Gevorg Pogosian told AFP.

After Armenia’s independence, Sarkisian held top government posts
including defence minister and interior minister before becoming
prime minister in 2007.

He became Armenia’s third president in 2008 but the victory was
tarnished by bloody clashes between the security forces and supporters
of former president Levon Ter-Petrosian that left 10 people dead.

Analysts credit Sarkisian with healing the wounds of society since
then by showing a streak of pragmatism that has contrasted with the
often stubborn defiance of his predecessor Robert Kocharian.

Persistent corruption and the influence of powerful oligarchs in his
circle has also cast a shadow over his rule, and he has vowed not to
run in the 2018 election.

Sarkisian is a fanatical chess player who heads the Armenia chess
federation and who has overseen a stunning development of the sport
in the country, with Armenians frequently winning top competitions
and mobbed as heroes on their return home.

He is fond of stating that chess moves are sometimes useful in
politics and he has needed to use all his cunning to ensure a strong
foreign policy for the small Christian country surrounded by much
more powerful neighbours.

Under his rule, Armenia has managed the unlikely feat of having a
strategic partnership with its former Soviet master Russia while
deepening ties with the EU, NATO and the United States as well
as keeping a conspicuously warm friendship with its giant Islamic
neighbour Iran.

Less successful have been cautious attempts to forge ties with its
foe Turkey — a hugely risky strategy given the opposition within
the 10 million strong Armenian diaspora who want the World War I mass
killings of Armenians termed worldwide as a genocide carried out by
the Ottoman Empire.

The Nagorny Karabakh war left the Azerbaijani territory controlled
by Armenian separatists who declared a breakaway state almost
exclusively populated by Armenians that is backed, although not
formally recognised, by Yerevan.

With the Baku defence budget wallowing in petrodollars and President
Ilham Aliyev inclined to bellicose rhetoric, Sarkisian has vowed to
strike back with massive retaliation should Azerbaijan seek to take
the region by force.

mkh-sjw/zak/txw

INCUMBENT PRESIDENT FAVOURED TO RETAIN POWER IN ARMENIA ELECTION

Europe Online Magazine
Feb 18 2013

By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online

Yerevan (dpa) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan was expected to
retain power as voting drew to a close Monday in the former Soviet
republic amid concerns of vote-buying, but with no reports of violence.

Pro-Russian Sargsyan, 58, was leading the field of seven candidates.

He had called for a “fair and transparent vote”.

Election officials were investigating reports of bribes to influence
some votes, as well as allegations of ballot stuffing.

About 2.5 million people of the country’s 3.3-million population were
eligible to vote. Polls close at 8 pm (1600 GMT), with first results
expected soon after. dpa mau dem wo ncs ar Authors: Ulf Mauder,
Wolfgang Jung, Awet Demurjan

ABSURDITY AND IRRESPONSIBILITY

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 18 2013

Author: Susanna Petrosian, Yerevan, exclusively to VK

Today Armenia votes in presidential polls. There are seven presidential
candidates, but experts believe the clear election is incumbent
President Serzh Sargsyan. Election campaign in Armenia was very active
and memorable mainly because of hunger strikes and an attack on one of
the candidates Paruyr Hayrikian, who later tried to form an intrigue
with postponing the voting day, but later he abandoned this idea.

The absence of serious political struggle was reflected in such
an important field as foreign policy. Statements by some of the
presidential candidates on major foreign policy issues looked odd,
if not absurd. According to the head of the Center for Regional
Studies Richard Giragosian, in the current presidential race
there is a primitive, low-level foreign policy discourse, in which
Armenian-Iranian, Armenian-Georgian relations, the Armenian-Turkish
process and even the possibility of opening the airport in Stepanakert
are very little discussed.

Watchful attention was caused the statement of the leader of “Heritage”
party, presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian on prospects of
relations with neighboring Turkey: “By 2015, either the border between
Armenia and Turkey will be opened without preconditions, or on April
24 in Tsitsernakaberd we will sound our preconditions to Turkey. A
major priority of our political agenda will be genocide recognition,
compensation to relatives of victims, the guaranteed return of
descents of the Armenians affected by the genocide to their land, and
a new agreement on the delimitation of the Armenian-Turkish border,
based not on the Bolshevik-Turkish acts of 1921 but on the modern
international law”. The former U.S. citizen whose family continues
to live in this country did not specify whether his own family and
he himself would move from prosperous California to the land of their
ancestors in such a case, whether his sons will serve in the Armenian
army to implement the ideas of their father, or only the voters of
Raffi Hovannisian will have this right. Given the present condition
of the balance of power in the region and the real possibilities,
this statement by Hovannisian can be qualified as irresponsible.

Giragosian called the position of Hovannisian considered to be the
main rival of the incumbent President regarding the Armenian-Turkish
relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict too harsh: “As forhe
issue of the Armenian-Turkish relations, Hovannisian has a much
harder position than ARF. Hovhannisyan is more Dashnak than Dashnaks
themselves. ”

The perplexing of the political and expert community was also caused
by the statement by President Serzh Sargsyan on the Armenian Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. In particular,
in February, the president said that the Armenian “genocide” and
“Meds Yeghern” (“great massacre”) were synonyms. This statement was
honored with critical assessment not only of traditional parties like
“Dashnaktsutiun”, but of the political forces, for which recognition
of the Armenian Genocide is not the key issue, it is about the Armenian
National Congress (ANC).

The representative of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of ANC
Vladimir Karapetyan drew attention to the fact that the political
agenda includes the issue of recognition not of “Yeghern” but of the
“genocide.” “” Genocide “has international significance. In Armenian
“Yeghern” is its synonym, but it is not an international term. In
the plane of morality this is really the same thing, but when we talk
about the recognition of the genocide by the international community,
especially in terms of non-repetition, the emphasis definitely
should be on internationally accepted term – “genocide”, Karapetyan
says. – “There is no need to replace the international term by its
Armenian synonym”. In 1988, the Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted a
law recognizing the Armenian genocide, which clearly stated the term.

Therefore, the statement by Sargsyan that the term “genocide” and
“Meds Yeghern” are synonymous can be characterized as a violation of
the international law.

Radical, apparently intended for internal users, applications of
some of the presidential candidates on the need to recognize the
independence of Nagorno-Karabakh are also interesting. Moreover, such
statements are made by former senior officials with direct relevance
to foreign policy – the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia
Hovhannisyan and the former Foreign Minister of Nagorno Karabakh Arman
Melikyan. So, Hovannisian said that after being elected president he
will promote the recognition of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh,
“Not recognizing Karabakh is equal to giving up national interests.”

“If I am elected president, I will initiate the process of recognition
of the NKR, and this process will run parallel to the negotiations
within the OSCE Minsk Group, it will be its welcome addition,” Melikyan
said. Some political scientists say that, such radical statements are
only pre-election trick, and such radical ideas should not be thrown
into the public consciousness.

Apparently, the former officials of the realm of foreign policy
against the background of their “patriotic” statements would have
to remember that Armenia has undertaken a number of international
commitments, particularly within the framework of the OSCE. The
Karabakh conflict, in contrast to all other conflicts in the former
Soviet Union, is the only one the negotiation process around which
was never interrupted. NKR recognition by Yerevan can be seen in Baku
as getting out of the negotiation process, which in turn can cause
the outbreak of the war, as the termination of negotiations in the
Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts led to war. The
current presidential race is characterized by the pursuit for momentary
sensations – one candidate accuses another in the attempt on the
third. In particular, such a statement was made by Vartan Setrakian,
who accused Hovannisian in the attempt to Paruyr Hayrikian.

The absence of real competition, predetermined election results,
candidates fighting not for the first but for the second place,
the competition between candidates, who, except for the president,
have no serious political force – all this has meant that the bar of
the presidential elections in Armenia decreased by several orders.

Reckless statements by some candidates were only one consequence of
the absence of real political struggle. This will surely take effect
on the political processes, because the political life is not limited
to elections.

.

ARMENIA CELEBRATES TRNDEZ

Vestnik Kavkaza
Feb 18 2013
Russia

Author: Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan, exclusively for VK

On February 13 Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Trndez
(Candlemas). According to the law of Moses, the woman who gave birth
to a boy could not enter the temple for 40 days. Afterwards the woman
came to the temple with her baby to bring a sacrifice and get blessing
from a priest. Trndez (Candlemas) marks the presentation of Jesus to
the temple.

On the eve, the evening mass is followed by Andastan – the ritual
of blessing four sides of the world – and the ritual of blessing
the candle. According to the ancient tradition that goes back to the
pre-Christian times, the candle lights the fire that now symbolizes
the saving light of Christ. On the decision of the head of Armenian
Church Karekin II this day is considered the day for blessing the
newly-weds. This ritual is performed in all the churches after the
holiday mass.

Initially Trndez was a pagan celebration. It was called Derendez
what in Armenian meant “bundle of hay in front of your house.” This
was a good wish for the house.. When Armenia adopted Christianity,
the name of the holiday changed, and it became known as “Terendez”
from “ter” – the owner, the creator. The meaning of it boils down to
the fact that “God is with us” and we all turned to God.

The bonfire is the main symbol of the holiday, and the young couples
have to jump over it. It was believed that the fire has a purifying
power and helps fight the diseases and bad luch. It was said that
the newly-weds that in their first Trndez would jump over the bonfire
holding their hands will live long and happily. Often their relatives
were standing nearby and throuwing wheat grains in the fire. After
the newly-weds, the childless women were jumping over the fire in the
hope that the flame will help them get pregnant. It could happen only
once a year.

The fires were organized in the courtyards of the church and were
meant for the entire congregation. The tradition of having a fire in
the courtyard of the newlyweds’ house dates back to the 19th century.

The fire meant wellbeing and was believed to avert the evil. The
fires also meants fertility, wealth and good livestock. According to
the priest Esai Artenyan, jumping over the fire has no connection
to Christianity, but it does not impede salvation. “The Church
has never said that one needs to jump over the fire, it is just a
popular tradition. Popular believes and church rituals should be
distinguished”.

According to the ehtnologist Granush Kharatyan, in the USSR the church
holidays were repressed. “In the Soviet times Trndez did not have a
clear religious components, it was more of a popular custom. It was
pushed out from some parts of Armenia, but remained important in the
northern and central regions such as Shirak, Talin, Vayots Dzor and
Ararat valley populated the descendants of the Armenians who fled from
genocide. Now this holiday revived with the stron religious component.

Same as before, the church does not intend to push away the popular
tradition of bonfires”.

Of course, today nobody starts fires in front of the block houses in
Yerevan, but the young couples take part in the church ceremonies. It
is believed to be a family holiday so it is usually celebrated in
the narrow circle of relatives. The parents of the young wive come
to visit her and bring presents. Previously, the gifts were brough
on a round tray, but now in a special busket full of fruit, candies,
corn and seeds that are thrown in the fire.

The popularity of Trndez, same as other church holidays dating
back for centuries, confirms Armenia’s devotion to its history
and religion. The customs and revivlas that are now being reborn,
together with the faith and the language compose the spiritual axis
of the people. Three holidays – Trndez, Vardavar (roses in the water),
devoted to the spirit of love and beauty Astkhik, and the day of St.

Sarkis who protects the lovers compose the bucquet of the religious
holidays for love and marriage. All these three holidays are considered
the reflection of the Armenian mentality – no matter where Armenians
live, their main priority is family, then good education for children
and their home.

.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT RE-ELECTED, EXIT POLL SAYS

The Associated Press
Feb 18 2013

By By AVET DEMOURIAN, Associated Press

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, who has
overseen a modest economic recovery in his country, was re-elected
in a national election on Monday, according to an exit poll.

The poll of 19,130 voters conducted by Gallup and other pollsters
and carried by ArmNews TV showed Sarkisian winning 58 percent of
the ballots. The closest of his six rivals, the American-born Raffi
Hovanessian, who was post-Soviet Armenia’s first foreign minister,
polled 32 percent.

Just over 60 percent of Armenia’s 2.5 million eligible voters cast
ballots in the election for the country’s top official, according
to the Central Election Commission. Full preliminary results are
expected Tuesday.

A strong performance by Sarkisian appears to have helped him avoid
a runoff, which would be required if no candidate wins more than 50
percent of the vote.

Sarkisian’s victory had been widely expected. He has overseen a
return to economic growth after years of stagnation, although the
former Soviet republic still suffers from widespread poverty. World
Bank figures for 2010, the most recent year tallied, show nearly 36
percent of the country living below the national poverty line. Average
wages are about $300 a month.

The landlocked country’s economy is hobbled by the longstanding closure
of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey, both connected with the
occupation by Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian local forces of the
Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. That conflict shows no signs of
imminent resolution despite years of international mediation attempts.

The top challenger, Hovanessian, accused Sarkisian of losing the arms
race with Azerbaijan. He also contended that billions of dollars
have disappeared from the state budget because of corruption under
Sarkisian, and emphasized the large number of Armenians leaving the
country of 3 million to pursue better opportunities. The outward
flow is estimated last year to have been about 3.3 people per 1,000
of the population.

Sarkisian’s first term in 2008 started traumatically. Within weeks of
his election, clashes between police and supporters of Sarkisian’s
vanquished challenger, Lev Ter-Petrosian, left 10 people dead and
more than 250 wounded.

But Sarkisian adroitly reduced tensions by talking with critics and
allowing opposition protests. The next year, parliament granted a
sweeping amnesty to hundreds of people who had been arrested in the
post-election violence.

This year’s presidential campaign lasted only a month, but was packed
in drama that included the shooting of one candidate and another
contender going on a hunger strike.

Paruir Airikian, the candidate who was shot in the shoulder in a
mysterious attack, finished third Monday with 3 percent of the ballot,
according to the exit poll, apparently thanks to the outpouring of
sympathy for him over the shooting.

A fringe candidate, political analyst Andrias Gukasian, has been on
a hunger strike outside the national academy of sciences building in
central Yerevan since the campaign opened Jan. 21, protesting alleged
widespread vote-buying by Sarkisian’s party.

An interim report on the campaign by the elections-monitoring arm
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted
that some of Sarkisian’s campaign offices are located in government
buildings and that “the distinction between campaign activities and
state functions appears to be blurred.”

Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

ARMENIANS VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MARRED BY SHOOTING

Financial Mirror
Feb 18 2013

Armenians voted in a presidential election on Monday that is likely
to hand incumbent Serzh Sarksyan a new five-year term, but the lack
of any serious opposition and an assassination attempt on one of his
rivals cast a shadow over the election.

Opinion polls suggest Sarksyan’s victory is all but certain. He is on
target to win more than 60% of the votes in the small, landlocked
country in the South Caucasus, with the next of the other six
candidates barely in double figures.

Sarksyan’s supporters hope an election free of the violence and fraud
that marred the last presidential poll in 2008, when ten people were
killed in clashes, would show the world the former Soviet republic
is on the path to economic recovery after years of war and upheaval.

Political stability was a concern among a steady trickle of voters
who headed to a polling station at a children’s daycare centre in
the capital, Yerevan.

But with none of Sarksyan serious rivals in the opposition choosing
to stand in the race, election observers expressed concerns over the
democratic credentials of the vote.

Officials from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
said they found apathy towards the election and a lack of confidence
about the electoral process among the public when they visited the
country in January.

There are also questions about security in a country that is locked
in a dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside Azerbaijan over which
Armenians and Azeris fought a war in the 1990s. Sarksyan, 59, like
many of his generation, is a veteran of that war.

Tensions over the mountainous enclave still pose a threat to peace
in a region where pipelines take Caspian oil and natural gas to Europe.

Concerns about instability were underlined in an attempt to kill
Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63, an outsider in the election. He was shot in
the shoulder on January 31.

Another outsider in the race, Andrias Ghukasyan, has been on a hunger
strike since the start of the campaign to press demands for Sarksyan’s
candidacy to be annulled and for international observers to boycott
the vote.

A third candidate, Arman Melikyan, has said he will not vote on Monday
because he believes the election will be slanted in the president’s
favour. Other potential candidates did not take part in the race for
similar reasons.

International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are monitoring polls, which opened at
8 a.m. (0400 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT).

The first exit polls are expected a few hours after polls close and
official results on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

VOTED FOR ARMENIAN MUSICIAN ARTO TUNJOBOYAJYAN

On February 18, more than three percent of the participants in the
presidential elections made their ballots invalid.

According to the preliminary data from CEC, 50992 ballots were
considered invalid. 1 521 931 voters participated in the elections.

Every citizen knows who to vote. That is his choice and right. And
here’s a citizen who voted in favor of a famous Armenian musician Arto
Tunjoboyajyan. Moreover, she is a representative of the female gender,
since she stamped a lipstick kiss on the ballot.

This has become known as she had photographed and had sent her ballot.

By the way,the voted ballot is prohibited to photograph.

It should be noted that she wasn’t the only voter for Arto. As a fact,
the following photos:

OSCE/ODIHR OBSERVERS’ REPORT

06:39 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

YEREVAN, 19 February 2013 – Armenia’s presidential election was
generally well-administered and was characterized by a respect for
fundamental freedoms, including those of assembly and expression,
concluded the international election observation mission in a
statement released today. At the same time, the statement said, a
lack of impartiality on the part of the public administration and the
misuse of administrative resources resulted in a blurred distinction
between the activities of the state and those of the ruling party.

Candidate registration was inclusive, contestants had the chance
to campaign freely and voters had the opportunity to express their
choice. Media fulfilled their legal obligation to provide balanced
coverage and all contestants made use of their free airtime, the
statement said.

Among the concerns over misuse of administrative resources identified
in the statement was the participation, while on leave, of a large
number of public and civil servants in the campaign of the incumbent.

“There have been clear improvements in the electoral process since
the previous presidential elections, and we have noted progress in
many areas, including the media environment and the legal framework,”
said Karin Woldseth, the Head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) delegation. “At the same time, our joint
findings note several important areas where marked improvement is
needed to ensure full public trust in the electoral process.”

The electoral framework is comprehensive and conducive overall to the
conduct of democratic elections, and election commissions administered
the process in a professional manner, the statement said. It also
noted that, while several candidates alleged that voter lists were
inflated and raised concerns about possible impersonation of out-of
country voters, no evidence of this had been provided prior to Election
Day. The mission assessed positively the efforts that had been made
to improve the accuracy of voter lists, although further work in this
area remains to be done.

“We have observed a calm election day, characterized by no major
difficulties in electoral procedures, following a somewhat quiet,
low-key election campaign lacking significant political debate and
real competition,” said Milan Cabrnoch, the Head of the European
Parliament delegation. “This was mainly due to the decision by three
main parties not to nominate candidates.”

The campaign remained peaceful, although one candidate was shot and
injured early in the campaign under circumstances that are under
investigation, the statement said. While election day was calm and
orderly, it was marked by undue interference in the process, mainly
by proxies representing the incumbent, and some serious violations,
including cases of pressure on voters, were observed.

“Having been in the country for six weeks, we can say that candidates
were able to campaign freely and fundamental freedoms were respected.

Overall, the election was administered in a professional manner and
real efforts were made by the authorities to improve the quality of
the voter lists. The media covered all candidates in a rather balanced
manner, but that coverage would have benefitted from more critical
analysis and debates between candidates,” said Ambassador Heidi
Tagliavini, the Head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) long-term election observation mission.

“Unfortunately, the blurring of the distinction between the State and
the ruling party continues to be an issue. This was demonstrated in
the misuse of administrative resources, pressure on voters, and a
lack of impartiality on the part of the public administration.”