Author: Jagharian Tania

SERGE SARGSIAN CALLS ON OPPOSITION MEMBERS TO COOPERATE – UP TO FORMATION OF COALITION GOVERNMEMT

Noyan Tapan
Feb 26, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. A rally of supporters of the
presidential candidate who won the elections, the RA prime minister
Serge Sargsian took place in Republic Square of Yerevan on February
26. The rally was attended by officials of the executive and
legislative bodies and high-ranking officials from marzes. Serge
Sargsian made a speech at the rally. Below are excerpts from his
speech.

"Dear compatriots,

I welcome all of you and congratulate on the successful holding of
the presidential elections in Armenia. We succeeded in organizing two
elections one after another and getting positive opinions in both cases
for the first time in the history of newly independendent Armenia.

Today we experience both delight of victory and concern about the
future of our country.

We have gathered today to heal another wound – the wound that these
elections have opened on the body of our people. We must overcome
this ordeal, must be able to heal this wound quickly.

Dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

I assure you that you will not regret having given your votes to
Serge Sargsian.

I also express my gratitude to all those who have given their votes
to other candidates. We respect the opinions of our citizens and
we do not divide the society into "our own people" and "strangers",
or as some good-for-nothing democrats do now – into "our own people"
and "dregs of the nation".

I assure you that all criticism voiced by the candidates in the
pre-election period will be examined in detail.

>From this high rostrum, I am appealing to the former candidates and
the political forces supporting them: let’s cooperate. Up to formation
of a coalition government. One of our goals is to use all constructive
major forces in the name of Armenia’s development.

I want to speak today about the fate of democracy in our country,
I want to speak in front of you about the dignity of man, of each
citizen of the Republic of Armenia. The dignity that may only exist in
the country, in which power is formed through elections. The dignity
that we have no right to waste.

I promised victories to you, and we have won. I promise new victories,
and we will win.

We will defeat poverty, we will defeat evil, we will defeat
indifference.

Humaneness will win in our country, compassion will win in our country,
optimism will win in our country.

Unfortunately, we are witnessing a different phenomenon today. We
are witnessing division and split of the society, how an aggressive
grouping wants to achieve its goal at any price. We are witnessing
a process which is unprecedented by its danger.

I urge you not to become embittered because our sisters and brothers
are there, in another square. I am sure that the desire to have a
better Armenia have brought them to the square but, alas, they are
already not allowed to notice that they have become the tool of
several people’s revengful and office-seeking aspirations.

Dear friends,

These elections showed that we have managed to solve many and many
problems on the path of organizing good elections. These elections
showed that we still have a way to pass: first of all, the way of
raising confidence in the electoral process.

Dear compatriots, the most unacceptable thing in all this is the
unworthy conduct of a few of my comrades-in-arms whom the Devil has
mamanged to tempt by promises and ribaldry.

I will defend the right of speech freedom. However, free speech does
not mean the freedom of slander and swearing.

I will defend the right to hold rallies. However, the freedom of
rallies does not mean that the life of the capital city must be
paralyzed.

I defend the right to protest but the right of protest does not mean
that the other constitutional rights of our citizens must be abused.

Yes, the economic growth does not affect so rapidly the people’s
standard of living as we would like to. Yes, poverty reduction takes
time. Yes, we have the problem of ensuring a competitive economy
in the country, finally getting rid of the oligarchic system of the
economy that forms inevitably in the post-Soviet phase. But today we
are much stronger to solve these problems.

Today we are facing the dilemma of unity and fragmentation. We are
facing the dilemma of democracy and power usurpation.

Today we are the defenders of this democracy.

Democracy means that the rights of our citizens will be
protected. First of all, the right to form power through
elections. Today we protect this right.

I will protect fundamental human rights.

Today, a week after the elections, I say that the time of pre-election
slogans is up, the propaganda time is up, the time of accusations
is up. Now we have other problems to solve. We must implement the
expectations of our compatriots, address their problems and we must
continue to work and create.

"Everything has its time," is said in the Holy Writ.

Today is not the time to collect stones. It is time to throw them away.

It is time to work.

Today is the time of new national victories.

The time of human dignity and democracy.

Let’s go ahead. Armenia, go ahead, to new victories! Ahead Armenia!"

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Feb. 21, 2008

TURKEY’S GUL HOPES FOR BETTER TIES IN MESSAGE TO ARMENIAN LEADER

["TURKISH PRESIDENT CONGRATULATES HIS ARMENIAN COUNTERPART" – AA
headline]

ANKARA (A.A) -Turkish President Abdullah Gul congratulated Serge
Sarkisian on his election as the new president ofArmenia on Thursday.

Sending a congratulatory message to Sarkisian, President Gul said he
hopes Sarkisian’s mission will enablecreation of a ground to
normalize relations between Turkish and Armenian people who have
proved that they can co-existin peace and harmony for centuries.

"I sincerely wish that our concerted efforts will contribute to
regional peace and prosperity and create anatmosphere based on
stability, mutual confidence and cooperation," Gul also said in his
message.

Presidential election took place in Armenia on Tuesday. Prime
Minister Serge Sarkisian won almost 53 per cent ofvotes and became
the new president of this country.

PRESS RELEASE
Huys NGO
Contact: Lala Aslikyan or Karen Hakobyan
Hambardsumyan 16, apt. 26., Yerevan
Tel: 093447643
Email: [email protected]

To International Organizations carrying out observation mission
OSCE/ODIHR observation mission
OSCE PA observation mission
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
PACE

Statement

Elections of 2008 like presidential elections in 1996, 1998, 2003
and the constitutional referendum in 2005 were distorted by official
competent bodies by using the governmental machine of repressive
measures and criminal mechanisms. The data given by NGO observing
missions and monitoring, evaluations by the political parties put
their candidacy for the presidential elections, and the society
itself, that expresses its outburst in the square of Freedom are the
evidence of those distortions.

Nevertheless, all these didn’t get their evaluation by European
structures. The evaluation on February 20 given by OSCE/ ODIHR says
that `Armenian presidential elections were mostly in line with
international commitments’ became a card blanch by the governmental
authorities for further crimes and for taking actions against the
citizens struggling for their rights. So, with such an assessment, the
consecutive process of violation of the law by Armenian authorities
gets to its logical victory with the assistance of European
structures, i.e. `democratic’ state with distorted elections.

We consider that in this situation the democratic processes are
getting to its end in Armenia. Citizens finally are deprived from the
most important right of being a citizen, freely expressing his/her
thoughts and will. One of the fundamental rights of the citizen to
elect the authorities of his/her country has an exclusively
declarative character in Armenia.

This will is defined and dictated by the government with repressive
measures to the society including criminal processes such as taking
bribes, blackmail, distortion of votes, misuse of administrative
resources, terrorizing, beating etc., which resulted in an unhealthy
situation, to which the absence of free media is even more
contributing. Moreover, authorities are already justify their
repressions against the citizens fighting for their rights. The
situation was flowing in the same way as it was in the night of April
13, 2003, when the authorities cruelly broke down the peaceful meeting
by beating defenseless people, journalists, members of parliament. In
the future the governmental bodies didn’t implement their commitment
taken against the European council- no one was punished.

In this circumstances any public action, efforts directed to the
human rights protection become nonsense, meaningless. The letters to
law protection bodies are just funny. The only way for the citizen
remains civic recalcitrance and complaints, the vivid example of this
are rallies in Liberty Square.

We under signed, with all responsibility declare that the process
of Presidential elections in Armenia went through the way of criminal
in all its stages. This is for the benefit of the Armenian society to
implement the right to express its freely will by the process of
election, independently from the political orientation. Today’s
public complaints could not be considered as a pure political struggle
or coup de tate, that is civil action against violated rights, for the
establishment of the real democracy.

From now on RA Citizen does not have any alternative but
struggling. In the means of protesting the citizens are free but the
responsibility for its consequences lays on the provoking the
situation authorities of the RA and their supporters, including
European structures.

We demand from the mission:
– Thoroughly investigate facts of infringements with the
participation of NGOs and political parties, to reconsider the
assessment;
– To use all possible tools to keep the authorities of the RA away
from the implementing repressive mechanisms of the army and police.

Huys NGO
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly of Vanadzor
Mijnaberd NGO
Transparency International, Armenia
Asparez Journalists’ Club
Lawyers for human rights
Lala Aslikyan, citizen
Gayane Shagoyan, citizen
Zhanna Alexanyan, journalist

FERRERO-WALDNER: EC WILL CONTINUE TO ASSIST ARMENIA ON ITS PATH TO POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORMS

armradio.am
22.02.2008 17:45

EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood
Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner stated that she commends the people
of Armenia and its leaders on the fact that these elections were
conducted mostly in line with the country’s international commitments.

"As the OSCE Election Observation Mission stated in its preliminary
statement further improvements will be necessary to address remaining
challenges, in particular strengthening of public confidence in the
electoral process," the statement of Benita Ferrero-Waldner reads.

"At the same time it is important to note that considerable progress
has been achieved with regard to the preparation and conduct of the
electoral process since the last Presidential elections in 2003 thanks
to reforms undertake," European Commissioner stated.

She added that "support for these reforms is a key priority of the
EU/Armenia Action Plan under the European Neighborhood Policy."

"The European Commission will continue to assist Armenia on its
path to political and economic reforms. The recent strengthening
of the Commission presence in Yerevan through the opening of an
EC Delegation is a clear sign of our ongoing commitment," Benita
Ferrero-Waldner stated.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed confidence that "new President of
Armenia, together with the new government, will continue firmly on
the path of reform, which is vital for the Armenian people as well
as for the future of our relationship."

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER AND HIS DEPUTIES URGED LEVON TER-PETROSIAN "NOT TO USE OUR NAMES AND NOT TO MAKE PROVOCATIVE STATEMENTS"

Mediamax
February 21, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Defense Minister and his Deputies made a
statement today, in which they urged Ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian
"not to use our names and not to make provocative statements, which
do not correspond to the reality".

As the statement of the Defense Ministry’s leadership, which was
received by Mediamax, reads, "we urge the political figures to refrain
from involving the Armed Forces into political processes".

"We assure the citizens of the Republic of Armenia that the Armed
Forces will not be involved in internal political processes, will
act within the framework of law and will provide the security
of our Homeland, solving the tasks, set for them by the Supreme
Commander-in-Chief", the statement reads.

By another statement, the Armenian Defense Ministry’s leadership
congratulated Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian on being elected for
the position of the President.

ARMENIANS RIOT OVER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULT
Angela Balakrishnan and agencies

guardian.co.uk
Wednesday February 20 2008

Thousands of supporters of Armenia’s leading opposition candidate
were rioting today after it was announced that the prime minister,
Serge Sarkisian, had won the country’s presidential election.

Armenia’s election chief, Garegin Azarian, said a complete preliminary
count of the first round showed Sarkisian had gained nearly 53%
of the vote.

The result is enough to avoid a runoff against the top opposition
candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosian, who received about 21%.

Election officials said turnout was nearly 70%. However, the opposition
are alleging widespread fraud and said voters were harassed and beaten.

Ter-Petrosian, who was Armenia’s first president after it gained
independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union,
is insisting he is the real winner and is calling for mass protest.

Riot police armed with truncheons and shields were today facing
several thousands of protestors in Yerevan, the capital of the former
Soviet republic.

Sarkisian was groomed by the outgoing president, Robert Kocharyan,
and was favoured to win the election.

The election campaign was dominated by policies for economic revival:
more than a quarter of Armenia’s 3.2 million people live in poverty.

The allegations of fraud and mass protests bring further instability
to the volatile country, caught between the energy-rich Caspian Sea
region, southern Europe and bordering Iran.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and observers
from a Moscow-led group of ex-Soviet republics, were monitoring the
vote and will release their assessment later today.

Millions of dollars of aid from the US and closer links with Europe
could be jeopardised if the elections are judged to have not met
democratic standards.

Today, Azerbaijan
Feb 18 2008

Khazar Ibragim: "There can not be any borders between Nagorno
Karabakh and Azerbaijan"

18 February 2008 [14:35] – Today.Az

There can not be any borders between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan
and Serj Sarkisyan does not have a right to demand anything from
Azerbaijan.

The due announcement was made by Khazar Ibragim, spokesman for
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, commenting on the announcement of
Armenian Prime Minister Serj Sarkisyan, made in the Armenian
parliament, regarding the necessity to draw borders between the
separatist Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia.

"There is no such concept as the people of Karabagh. There is a
territory of Karabakh and communities, residing there. We have
announced repeatedly that self-determination is possible only in the
framework of the territorial integrity and only then can the issue be
settled", he said.

At the same time, the spokesman noted that the borders exist between
the countries, while Nagorno Karabakh is an integral part of
Azerbaijan.

He noted that there are borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"However, the parameters of borders are not correct right now. But
this is an issue of time. Sarkisyan should think over the destinu of
his people, its economic and social state and pay attention to
Armenia’s position on the international arena instead of making such
pre-election proposals", Kh.Ibragim noted.

/Day.Az/

URL:

PORTRAITS OF LEADING CANDIDATES IN ARMENIA PRESIDENTIAL POLL

Agence France Presse — English
February 17, 2008 Sunday 1:53 AM GMT

Nine candidates are running Tuesday in a presidential election in
ex-Soviet Armenia. The four leading candidates are:

Serzh Sarkisian

Sarkisian, 53, is Armenia’s prime minister and close ally of President
Robert Kocharian.

Kocharian tapped Sarkisian as his successor after the prime minister’s
Republican Party swept parliamentary elections in May.

Sarkisian is widely seen as a hawk in Armenia’s fraught relations
with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Sarkisian is from the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnic
Armenian enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in
the early 1990s. A former head of the separatist army, Sarkisian has
held key posts in the Armenian government, including as head of the
interior and defence minister.

A January poll of 1,500 Armenian voters by British pollster Populus
gave Sarkisian 50.7 percent support. He is married and has two
children.

Artur Baghdasarian

Baghdasarian, 39, is a former speaker of parliament who fell out with
the government and joined the opposition.

His Rule of Law party won nine seats in the 131-seat National Assembly
in May’s parliamentary elections, the most of any opposition party.

A former chairman of the French University in Armenia, Baghdasarian
is seen as more pro-Western than the current government, which has
fostered strong ties with Moscow.

Born in the capital Yerevan and a lawyer by training, Baghdasarian
was first elected to parliament 1995. Re-elected in 1999 and 2003,
he was the influential speaker from 2003 to 2006, when he was ousted
after for criticising the authorities.

The Populus poll gave him 13.4 percent of the vote. He is married
and has two children.

Levon Ter-Petrosian

Ter-Petrosian, 63, was Armenia’s president from 1991 until his
resignation in 1998. He broke 10 years of silence last year to announce
his comeback bid for the presidency.

Opponents blame Ter-Petrosian for economic chaos that engulfed the
country in the 1990s and accuse him of fixing his election wins.

Supporters say he is an experienced statesman who could help end
Armenia’s international isolation. Ter-Petrosian has called for a more
conciliatory approach with neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey, both of
which have cut diplomatic ties and sealed their borders with Armenia.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, Ter-Petrosian’s family moved to Soviet Armenia
shortly after his birth. A political scientist, Ter-Petrosian
was elected leader of Soviet Armenia in 1990, shortly before its
independence. He was elected the country’s first post-Soviet president
in 1991 and re-elected in 1996, before he was forced to step down in
1998 for advocating concessions with Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh.

The Populus poll gave Ter-Petrosian 12.6 percent of the vote. He is
married and has one son and three grandchildren.

Vahan Hovannisian

Hovannisian, 41, is the deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament
and the candidate of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF),
one of Armenia’s oldest political parties.

Born in Yerevan, Hovannisian is a historian and archaeologist who
was first elected to parliament in 1999. The ARF, or Dashnaktsutiun
as the party is widely known, is a socialist and nationalist party
with strong links to the Armenian diaspora. The party was banned in
the early 1990s for an alleged plot to overthrow the government, but
was a member of Kocharian’s governing coalition from 1998 until last
year. It won 16 seats in May’s parliamentary elections and while not
a member of the current coalition, continues to support the government.

Hovannisian was chosen as the party’s presidential candidate in
November in an Armenia-wide vote of party members — reportedly the
first primary-style selection of a candidate in the country’s history.

The Populus poll gave him 7.6 percent of the vote. He is married and
has two children.

LEVON ARONIAN TO TAKE PART IN MORELIA-LINARES CHESS SUPERTOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Feb 14, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Drawing of lots of the highest,
21-class chess supertournament took place on February 13 in the
city of Morelia, Mexico. The tournament’s first part will be held on
February 15-23 in Morelia and the second from February 28 to March
7 in the city of Linares, Spain. Eight strongest chess players,
Vishvantan Anand (India), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexei Shirov
(Spain), Peter Leko (Hungary), Vasili Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Levon Aronian
(Armenia), Teymur Rajabov (Azerbaijan), and Magnus Karlsen (Norway)
will take part in the tournament. It should be mentioned that Levon
Aronian is the 2006 winner of Morelia-Linares tournament.

OSCE NOTES USE OF GOVERNMENT LEVERS BY SARKISIAN
By Emil Danielyan and Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 14 2008

Echoing reports by opposition candidates and local media, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe detailed on
Thursday the widespread use of government resources in Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian’s election campaign.

In its second pre-election interim report, the main international
vote-monitoring mission deployed in Armenia by the OSCE said its
observers have "difficulties in distinguishing accurately between
Serzh Sarkisian’s campaign and the work of local self-government" not
least because some town and village mayors are "actively campaigning"
for the prime minister.

"In addition, the Republican Party has a number of offices in local
self- government buildings at various levels," said the report. It
quoted Sarkisian’s campaign manager, Deputy Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamian, as saying that all of them have been "converted" into
Sarkisian campaign offices.

Armenia’s Electoral Code prohibits the use of state property and
other assets for the promotion of any election candidate.

The observers working under aegis of the OSCE’s Warsaw-based Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) also touched upon the
use of government resources for ensuring high turnout at Sarkisian’s
campaign rallies. "An employee of a State institution reported to
OSCE/ODIHR EOM observers that they were directed by their superior
to attend one of Serzh Sarkisian’s campaign events," read their report.

The report noted the fact that in the northern city of Vanadzor
public transport was free and government offices "mostly deserted" on
February 6, the day when Sarkisian campaigned in the area. "Observers
were informed by employees that they had been told they could leave
work to participate in the rally," it said.

Sarkisian insisted, however, that nobody has been forced to attend
his rallies as he campaigned in the southern Ararat region on
Thursday. Addressing thousands of people in the regional capital
Artashat, he said anyone in the crowd who came to the rally against
their will is free to go home.

School teachers and their students have been a fixture at the prime
minister’s nationwide gatherings, and Ararat was no exception. As
he visited a local ancient monastery Sarkisian was greeted by scores
of students and teachers from two nearby schools. They admitted that
afternoon classes in their schools were cancelled as a result.

"The entire school staff is here," said a schoolteacher from the
village of Yeghegnavan.

"We are here to support the prime minister," explained one or her
colleagues. "There definitely need to be sacrifices. And this is
our sacrifice."

The OSCE/ODIHR mission also mentioned Sarkisian’s controversial
decision last December to set up an ad hoc government body tasked
with dealing with citizen complaints and requests. The government
and the ruling Republican Party (HHK) say that the move had nothing
to with the upcoming presidential election.

However, opposition candidates and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian
in particular insist that the body’s activities amount to vote
buying. They say that citizens needing assistance from the working
group have to fill out special forms distributed to voters by the MIAK,
a small pro-government party actively campaigning for Sarkisian.

The OSCE/ODIHR mission said the MIAK confirmed the information, adding
in that regard that Armenian law "prohibits the use of administrative
resources for campaign purposes."

Its report covering the period between January 27 and February 9
further noted that Armenia’s leading TV stations, the most accessible
source of election-related information, remain highly supportive of
Sarkisian and biased against Ter-Petrosian. "On most of the media,
the candidates’ total coverage time was more equitable than in
the previous reporting period," it said. "However, the coverage
of Levon Ter-Petrosian in various broadcast media contained many
critical remarks, while the other eight candidates were presented in
a generally positive or neutral manner."

"The news programs of almost all broadcast media except RFE/RL have
almost entirely omitted to air Levon Ter- Petrosian’s critical
remarks regarding Serzh Sarkisian and the incumbent president,"
added the report.