Ter-Petrosian’s supporters attacked the cameraman of the Public TV of Armenia
March 1, 2008
Yerevan /Mediamax/. Supporters of the Ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian,
who gathered near the building of the French Embassy, attacked today
the cameraman of "Haylur" news program of the Public TV of Armenia
Hakop Sarkisian.
Mediamax was told about this in "Haylur" program. There is not yet
any information on the condition of the cameraman and the state of
the equipment he had with him.
Eight killed in Armenian protests
g/2008/0302/breaking28.htm
March 2, 2008
Eight people were killed and 33 police injured in Armenia’s capital
during overnight protests, which ended after the government declared
a state of emergency and mobilized the army.
The state of emergency, effective until March 20, followed the worst
unrest in a decade, sparked by opposition protests against a February
19th presidential election they said was rigged.
Police fought pitched battles with opposition supporters who have
held daily protests since Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan was elected
president.
The state of emergency bans protests and imposes censorship. Outgoing
President Robert Kocharyan said he introduced the restrictions "to
prevent a threat to constitutional order".
He accused demonstrators of firing weapons and grenades and planning a
coup d’etat. The opposition rejected this, saying police had attacked
a peaceful protest.
A police statement said the deaths were under investigation, adding:
"We don’t know if they were policemen or protesters."
About 2,000 protesters stayed on in a square in the centre of Yerevan
armed with metal rods and Molotov cocktails as army trucks headed
towards the capital of the former Soviet republic, lying in a Caucasus
mountains region emerging as a key transit route for Caspian Sea oil
and gas supplies.
But the crowd melted away after a message was read out from Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, the protest leader and defeated challenger in the
election, urging his supporters to go home.
KARABAKH TELECOM WILL BUILD 50 HOUSES IN KASHATAGH OVER THE UPCOMING THREE YEARS
KarabakhOpen
28-02-2008 15:51:15
On February 27 Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan visited the town of
Berdzor and met with the workers of the municipality, the schools
and the medical station of the region of Kashatagh.
The town was damaged during the war, and most part of the town is still
in ruins but there are also a lot of new buildings. There is a housing
problem, and the mayor thinks this is the cause why people leave the
region. The people of Berdzor are waiting for large-scale construction.
Karabakh Telecom will lend them a hand, the leadership of which
promised to build 50 houses in the region within the upcoming three
years.
This year with government assistance the town will be gasified
completely, the water supply system will be improved, new jobs will
be created and the streets will be repaired.
The people of Kashatagh raised the problems of the state of community
roads, electricity in villages and communication, as well as loans. In
most villages there is a shortage of teachers and accountants. There
is a lack of agricultural machines.
"We should not forget that the government funds are limited, and
in the beginning we solve only urgent problems," said the prime
minister. The head of state said besides other government programs a
loan program will be launched. A road construction company will be
set up which will repair the roads, the department of information
and public relations of the NKR government reports.
RPA BELIEVES THAT "DASHNAKTSUTIUN" WILL CONTINUE COOPERATION WITH THE RULING COALITION
Mediamax
February 25, 2008
Yerevan /Mediamax/. Head of parliamentary faction of the Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA) Karen Karapetian expressed opinion
that "Dashnaktsutiun" will continue cooperation with the ruling
coalition, despite the statement of the parliament Vice-Speaker Vahan
Hovhannissian on his intention to retire.
Karen Karapetian stated in an interview to Mediamax today that the
decision of Vahan Hovhannissian is of personal and not political
nature.
Head of RPA faction noted that "Dashnaktsutiun" has not made any
statements on coming out of the agreement on cooperation with the
coalition, which, according to him, implies the preservation of the
current "status-quo".
It is expected that today the Supreme Body of "Dashnaktsutiun" party
will make a statement on the results of the elections. Candidate from
"Dashnaktsutiun" Vahan Hovhannissian occupied the fourth place in
the elections, gaining 6.2% of the electors’ votes.
EnerPub, TX
Feb. 26, 2008
Post-election jitters in Armenia
Observers ask if Armenia is on the eve of a colorful revolution or a
colorless transition of power following February elections.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
by Asbed Kotchikian
Armenian citizens voted on 19 February in their 5th presidential
elections – and for their 3rd president – since independence. The
main contenders for the top political job included Prime Minster
Serge Sargsian, backed by the outgoing president Robert Kocharian;
Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrossian; a former speaker of
the house, Arthur Baghdasarian; and the current deputy speaker of the
house, Vahan Hovannisian.
Similar to many other elections in the former Soviet space, the
winner of the election was the individual backed by the state
institutions; in this case Sargsian. However, unlike other elections
there were some new elements during the election and post-election
period which made this particular poll in this small South Caucasus
country interesting.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the elections in Armenia was the
return of Ter-Petrossian to the political arena.
After a decade of self-imposed isolation, the former president
declared his candidacy with an agenda to "clean the house" and
managed to gather enough endorsements from various opposition groups
that he was viewed as the main opposition contender against Sargsian.
Ter-Petrossian’s potential return created much speculation both
domestically and internationally about the possibility of Armenia’s
first president becoming its third one as well.
While Ter-Petrossian was gaining momentum and challenging the status
quo, the government’s response was swift and the state-owned and
supported media staged a campaign against the former president by
linking his return with the dire socio-economic conditions that
Armenians were living under during his first tenure in power, when
Armenia was fighting a war in Nagorno-Karabakh and the country was
under an economic blockade from Turkey.
On election day, two diverging trends describing the election process
appeared. While international monitors – mostly from the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) and the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – reported that the elections were
administered in compliance with OSCE and Council of Europe standards,
the local media painted another picture.
Even from the early hours of the election, news that pro-Sargsian and
pro-Ter-Petrossian groups had been conducting gross violations of
electoral laws such as ballot stuffing and intimidating election
monitors were reported by a wide array of local media sources. At the
end of the day election results showed that Sargsian had won the
election by almost 53 percent of the votes, thus sparing him a
run-off second stage election with his nearest rival Ter-Petrossian,
who was officially declared to have won over 21 percent of the votes.
The phenomenon of conflicting reports on the election process raised
the question in the minds of Armenian citizens whether Russia and the
West were more interested in stability and continuity of the current
regime?s policies than they were in observing that elections were
free and fair.
The immediate outcome was that the Ter-Petrossian camp called for the
annulment of the results and asked the people to continuously
demonstrate until their demands were met.
While tens of thousands of people have responded to Ter-Petrossian’s
call, it seems that the election results are final.
This final sentiment was echoed by the pro-establishment newspaper
Hayots Ashkharh where it announced that "the unequivocally positive
assessment of the [19 February] elections by the international
community settled the issue of determining Armenia’s next president
both for itself and for us."
Two issues remain important for the survival of the demonstrations.
The first is the chance that the demonstrators have to translate
their street power into a more sustained political movement. The fact
that the next parliamentary elections are over three years away means
that it is difficult for the opposition to try to control the
legislative branch and create a de facto system of checks and
balances.
In the 1998 presidential elections when Robert Kocharian won, his
main challenger Karen Demirchian managed to build on the momentum
that he had during the presidential elections to establish an
alliance with other opposition leaders and take over the parliament
and use it as an institutional base to challenge the presidency. The
strategy was successful until Demirchian was assassinated during a
parliament session only months after his success.
The second issue that could determine the future of the political
situation in Armenia is the continued defection by pro-government
deputies and government officials – including several high-ranking
Defense and Foreign Ministry officials – to the Ter-Petrossian camp.
True, there were quite a few number of defectors before the
elections, which could have been explained by the reports that
Ter-Petrossian had high chances of being elected and hence people
joined his camp based on that premise, but the continued defections
during the post-election period raises the issue of whether the
anti-government demonstrators still have a chance to reverse the
election results.
The main question remains if Armenia is on the eve of a colorful
revolution or a colorless transition of power.
While the political situation remains tense, there are no signs that
the demonstrations could turn violent as the opposition has been
adamant about reiterating that they will not use force to reverse the
lections results.
The power of the demonstrators could be tested in the coming weeks if
they continue to build momentum with more defectors joining their
ranks or just withering away as people return to "business as usual"
mode.
Asbed Kotchikian is the Assistant Director of International Affairs
Program at Florida State University and specializes in the politics
of identity as well as political processes in the South Caucasus and
the Middle East. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of
the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network
(ISN), which published this article.
sp?id=14608
PROCESSION OF LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S SUPPORTERS PASSES WITHOUT INCIDENT
Noyan Tapan
Feb 25, 2008
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, NOYAN TAPAN. A procession along Mashtots Avenue,
Amirian, Nalbandian and Tumanian Streets, which was organized by
supporters of the first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian,
finished at about 6:30 p.m. Throughout the procession, thousands of
participants chanted "Levon" and "Serzhik, Go Away". The procession
passed without incidents.
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Feb. 23, 2008
Peter Semneby: We hope Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents to meet
until the upcoming presidential elections
[ 23 Feb 2008 12:48 ]
`It had not been planned to follow elections outside Armenia in the
presidential elections’.
Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubayli-APA. Peter Semneby, the EU Special
Representative for the South Caucasus, has held several meetings at
the Council of Europe.
He told APA Bureau that he met with Secretary General of the Council
of Europe, Human Rights Commissioner, Ago Group members, and Chairman
of the Venice Commission to have discussion on the results of
Azerbaijan visit, the next visit of AGO Group members to Azerbaijan,
and the human rights commission report on Azerbaijan.
He added that the European Union will hold certain projects in the
run-up to presidential elections in Azerbaijan, and will closely
watch pre-election situation and other matters related to the
electoral legislation.
Peter Semneby said he was not aware of Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Ministry’s protest note on the fact that international organizations
monitored elections in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands during Armenian
presidential elections.
`I doubt any observers went to Karabakh. What I can say is that there
had been no plan to follow elections outside Armenia,’ he added.
As to the Kosovo precedent for Nagorno Karabakh and other conflicts
in the former USSR area, Peter Semneby said each conflict is unique
in itself.
`Conflicts have more differences than similarities. This is
applicable to the conflicts in South Caucasus too. Kosovo and
Karabakh conflicts are completely different. The Nagorno Karabakh
conflict is a more complicated one, I would say. However, it is clear
that this conflict should be solved through peace negotiations. It is
our position. Armenia has recently elected its new president. We hope
this will intensify peace negotiations and will give impetus to
settlement of the conflict. Continuation of negotiations during
elections in the two countries is very important. I would like a
meeting between Armenian new president and Azerbaijani president to
take place. However, this is in the interest of the parties, the
sooner the better. We hope the meeting will take place until
Azerbaijan’s presidential elections,’ he added.
Semneby also noted that the European Commission will discuss a report
on the implementation of the Action Plan on Azerbaijan in April.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ARMAN MELIKYAN: ARMENIA MUST RECOGNIZE NKR AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WILL DO THIS IN FUTURE
arminfo
2008-02-22 14:52:00
ArmInfo. Armenia must recognize the Nagorny Karabakh Republic and
the international community will do the same in future, Presidential
candidate Arman Melikyan said at a press conference, Friday. Earlier,
A. Melikyan occupied the post of Advisor to NKR President.
Asked about the precedent of Kosovo independence, Melikyan said that
NKR’s recognition is necessary regardless of Kosovo recognition. He
called Kosovo independence recognition an important fact. ‘However,
we could recognize Karabakh much earlier, settle these territories,
which might give us a better situation than we have now. Simply,
this process must have been launched earlier’, A.Melikyan said.
RALLY NOT SANCTIONED
Panorama.am
20:14 21/02/2008
Today’s rally called by Levon Ter-Petrosyan at 15:00 at the Square
of Freedom is not sanctioned, Yerevan municipality public relations
department told Panorama.am. According to the source, the demonstrators
even have not asked for sanctioning the rally. The police also say
the rally is not sanctioned.
ARMENIA ELECTION: RE-COUNT STARTED IN SOME POLLING STATIONS
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2008 13:13 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At the instance of Orinats Yerkir party members, who
nominated their Artur Baghdassaryan for the post of President, re-count
of votes has started in over 100 polling stations, IA Regnum reports.
The February 19 presidential election was won by RA Prime Minister
Serzh Sargsyan who garnered 52,86% of votes. He was followed by first
President’s Levon Ter-Petrosyan (21,5%), Orinats Yerkir leader Artur
Baghdassaryan (16,66%), ARF Dashnaktsutyun candidate Vahan Hovhannisian
(6,2%). The other candidates received insignificant number of votes.
The International Election Observation Mission said in its statement
that the election was conducted mostly in line with the country’s
international commitments.
The President of the Republic of Armenia is elected for a 5-year term.