Armenian poll challenge rejected

19 March 2008
BBC News, UK

The constitutional court in Armenia has rejected opposition claims that the presidential election was rigged.

The court accepted opposition claims there were some violations but said this could not call into question the entire poll.

The original announcement that Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian had won sparked days of protests.

The government declared a 20-day state of emergency on 1 March as eight protestors died in clashes with police.

Public gatherings have been banned and restrictions placed on the media.

Official election results in Armenia gave Serzh Sarkisian 53% of the vote, and the main opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian 21.5%.

Mr Ter-Petrosian had alleged there was widespread fraud at the poll, but his legal appeal was rejected.

The outgoing President, Robert Kocharian, has warned that the authorities will not tolerate any more mass demonstrations even after the state of emergency is over.

The BBC's Matthew Collin says a small group of female opposition supporters defied the measures on Saturday when they dressed in black and laid flowers where the clashes had taken place, in memory of those who died.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia: The United States is Muted on the Armenian Political Crisis

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Eurasianet
By Joshua Kucera

The continuing political crisis Armenia stemming from the March 1 violence in Yerevan has unfolded with little comment from the United States, either from the US government or from influential Armenian-American lobbying groups.

The root cause of the crisis is found in the disputed presidential election on February 19, in which Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian was declared the winner. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Asserting that widespread fraud enabled Sarkisian’s victory, the main challenger Levon Ter-Petrossian mounted a permanent protest in Yerevan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. A government attempt to disperse the demonstrators during the pre-dawn hours of March 1 sparked an escalating confrontation that culminated in armed clashes. Officially, eight people died in the clashes, but witnesses believe the death toll could be substantially higher. Under state of emergency regulations imposed on March 1, the government enjoys broad powers to restrict press freedom, making verification of competing claims next to impossible. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

A statement by Karekin II, the spiritual leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, urged that both sides compromise. "Let us practice wisdom and reasoning, refraining from fraternal hostility and actions that deepen the discord. All problems and issues which trouble us, shall be solved through peaceful means, respect for the law and the safe paths of dialogue,” Karekin II said in a statement issued March 3. "Each of us must answer for our actions before history and our generations. Let us not risk the stability of our country with further unwise actions.”

Kocharian on March 5 vigorously defended his decision to impose a state of emergency, which in addition to restricting the flow on information, also allows for the limitation of non-governmental organization activity and the roll-back of civil liberties, including freedom of assembly. The president appeared to place all blame for developments on his political opponents, and vowed to “to track down all inciters, masterminds and executors of the unrest,” according to comments distributed by the official Armenpress news agency. Kocharian also stated that he had no intention of extending the state of emergency, which is due to expire on March 20.

The government’s media blackout has silenced at least five Armenian news outlets. And in a move that is sure to create difficulties for US-Armenian relations, President Robert Kocharian’s adminsitration has also suspended broadcasts of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and has blocked the RFE/RL website in Armenia.

There are several reasons for the relative US silence on recent developments in Armenia, analysts say. On a geopolitical level, Armenia is not deemed of vital strategic importance by Washington, as the Caucasus country lies outside the Caspian Basin energy corridor that passes through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

In addition, the Armenian crisis is not viewed in Washington as a struggle pitting democratic forces against an authoritarian regime. It is more of an internecine struggle, in which a dispute among an entrenched political elite over the division of spoils has escalated to the point where it got out of control. Ter-Petrosian and his supporters are generally not seen as being any more democratically oriented than the incumbent Kocharian-Sarkisian team. To substantiate that point, some observers point to the fact that in the 1996 presidential election, Ter-Petroisian, who was running then as an incumbent, was accused of many of the same electoral abuses that he now assails the Kocharian administration for.

Finally, Armenian-American diaspora groups, which wield significant power in Washington’s policy towards Armenia, have chosen not to call attention to the crisis there.

The State Department issued a mildly worded statement on March 1, condemning the violence. The statement implied equal responsibility for both the government and the protesters. “Any unlawful actions such as violence and looting worsen the situation and must stop. We hope that the State of Emergency declared today will be lifted promptly and that political dialogue resumes,” the statement said.

But that is not enough, said Cory Welt, associate director of the Eurasian Strategy Project at Georgetown University. “The United States and the Europeans should certainly do one thing – stop pretending there is democratic progress where there is none. It’s one thing to shy away from giving the street false cause for optimism; it is another to be so patronizing about ‘baby steps’ toward democracy when there are none.”

“What makes the Armenian case so unusual is the willingness of the United States and Europe to move forward with business as usual when there is no business to be done - Armenia is neither a security nor an energy partner for the West,” Welt said.

Given the recent developments, Welt suggested that Washington should suspend aid from the Millennium Challenge Account, which is supposed to encourage Armenia to build democratic institutions. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The flow of Millennium Challenge assistance should not resume until there is a full, independent accounting for the violence on March 1 and 2, Welt added.

There has also been a relatively muted response from Congress, including from the members who are active in pro-Armenian issues. Armenian lobby groups have not pressed Congress to get involved in the crisis in Armenia, according to one Congressional staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity. That is partly because the lobby groups have political ties with the parties in power in Armenia, but partly because they feel that focusing on Armenia’s negatives is bad public relations.

“Frankly, in terms of the Armenian-American lobby, they get really ginned up and energized about the Armenian genocide resolution, but they don't really want to look at corruption, because that doesn't put them in a very favorable light,” the staffer said. “This doesn't help them with their agenda.” [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Armenian National Committee of America did not release any statement on the crisis, and as of the morning of March 5 its website carried no mention of the situation unfolding in Armenia. The Armenian Assembly of America did post a statement on its website, calling on all sides to “adhere to the rule of law and to refrain from violence, as well as to ensure that the media will cover the events as they take place with fairness and balance.” Neither organization returned calls and emails by a EurasiaNet correspondent seeking comment.

“Without energy or particular strategic importance, Armenia is left in the United States with the politically quite strong Armenian diaspora,” Welt said. “In the end, it is not the lobbies that should be held responsible, but their representatives in Congress who have far greater reason to be troubled by the hypocrisy of avoiding discussion or comparison of the internal state of Armenia when shaping US policy in its confrontations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

Part of the diaspora groups’ ambivalence can be explained by the fact that the main opposition candidate, Ter-Petrossian, strove to weaken the political strength of the Armenian diaspora when he was in office. In addition, his willingness to negotiate with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh angered members of the diaspora groups. Ultimately, Ter-Petrosian’s willingness to negotiate on the Karabakh issue initiated a chain of events that led to his resignation in 1998. He was replaced by Kocharian.

The Karabakh contact line dividing Armenian and Azerbaijani troops was the scene of heavy fighting on March 4-5. Azerbaijani officials on March 5 claimed that Armenian forces launched an attack, in part out of a desire to distract attention from events in Yerevan. Armenian officials countered that Azerbaijani forces initiated the clash. The death toll was placed at between eight and 16. Kocharian, in commenting on the fighting, stated that officials in Baku were trying to take advantage of Armenia’s domestic difficulties. "In all likelihood Azerbaijani leaders thought that because of recent events in Yerevan, the army of Nagorno-Karabakh has lost its vigilance or communication,” Kocharian told Armenpress

In addition, the Armenian diaspora groups tend to disengage from Armenian political issues because the corruption and authoritarianism conflict with the American values that they have acquired, said Yossi Shain, a political scientist at Georgetown University who studies the politics of diaspora groups.

“One can argue that in the mind of the diaspora, Armenia as a homeland has served more as a notion, perhaps a mythical vision than as a concrete sovereign state,” Shain said. “If the [Armenian] state represents something hostile to their ideology, they will remove themselves. They will be more keen to identify with Armenia as a whole than to identify with one regime, if it violates what they consider to be the values of America.”

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

National Security Service of Armenia allegedly fabricated criminal case against Karabakh war hero

Jan 8, 2008
Axis News

[...]

On behalf of the Chairman of the National Security Service of Armenia, a new criminal

case has been fabricated against former commander of Shushi special-task batallion Zhirair Sefilyan, online paper Armenia Today reports, referring to Committee of support of Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan.

According to the application of committee, widespread on January 7, the claim of Sefilyan’s lawyer, having brought an action against Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan, has served as the reason for initiating the criminal case. Kocharyan reportedly, having learned about the claim, had specified the National Security Service of Armenia in any way to prolong term of Sefilyan’s arrest.

On December 18, Sefilyan’s lawyer, Vage Grigoryan, brought an action in the civil court of the first instance of Nork-Marsh communities, accusing President Kocharyan of professional inactivity. In particular, it was stressed that the president "was guilty" having ignored two references of Sefilyan on granting to him citizenship of Armenia in the simplified order, having not taken any decision at all.

It, Zhirair Sefilyan, born in Lebanon, is the former commander of Shushi special-task battalion, a Lieutenant-Colonel, the hero of the Karabakh war, the coordinator of the public initiative For Protection of Released Territories. During the Lebanese civil war participated in self-defense of the Armenian community. In 1990 he moved to Armenia, participated in the Karabakh war as an instructor, a commander of a unit, platoon, the commander of separate Shushi battalion. Being a representative of fundamental opposition to the authorities of Armenia, on December 10, 2006, Sefilyan was detained on charge in public appeals to violent change of the constitutional order in the country, and subsequently he was condemned only for illegal storage of the weapons.

[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

POLL: ARMENIA SHOULD LAY CLAIMS TO GENOCIDE

25/12/2007
Source: Panorama.am

Today finished the project “People’s President” SMS poll, organized by “Radio Hay”. The project started in November 17.

What should be the policy of the Armenian president concerning the relations of Russia and Europe? The poll results showed that 50% of population quoted for “Armenia should play neutral position and create balanced relations both with Russia and Europe”.

Another question was asked “Armenia should strengthen its relations with Europe, regardless of Russia’s position”. The most astonishing thing is that this variant received higher marks (28%) than its negative variant (22%).

As for Armenian genocide and Armenian Turkish relations the majority of participants (98%) quoted for having demands in this issue. And, finally the last issue was NKR question. The participants of the poll quoted for keeping the peaceful negotiations with Azerbaijan, and get the final results without carrying out military activities.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Bomb explodes outside Armenian newspaper, no-one hurt

Thu Dec 13, 2007

YEREVAN, Dec 13 (Reuters) - A bomb exploded on Thursday outside the offices of an Armenian opposition newspaper that is strongly critical of President Robert Kocharyan's administration.

No-one was injured in the blast, which blew out windows and damaged the doors at the Yerevan offices of the Chorrord Ishkhanutyun (The Fourth Estate) newspaper early on Thursday, police said.

"We think this is linked to our publications since we give responses to all unjust things," editor Shogher Matevosyan told Reuters.

Kocharyan has supported his Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan in the February 19 presidential election but former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan is trying to win back power, raising tensions in the small Caucasus state.

The paper had written articles supporting Ter-Petrosyan. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Myra MacDonald)

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Ter-Petrosian Reaffirms Conciliatory Line On Turkey

Monday 10, December 2007
Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
By Emil Danielyan

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian reaffirmed on Saturday his conciliatory stance on Amenia’s relations with Turkey, saying that Yerevan should leave it to the worldwide Armenian Diaspora to pursue international recognition of the 1915 genocide. He also deplored Armenian efforts to thwart Turkey’s membership in the European Union.

The highly sensitive issue was a major theme of his latest speech at an anti-government rally in Yerevan, with Ter-Petrosian responding to government claims that his views on Turkish-Armenian relations are “pro-Turkish.”

Echoing long-standing claims by Armenian nationalist groups, President Robert Kocharian said in a newspaper interview last week that his predecessor is “ready to forget the genocide and turn Armenia into an appendage of Turkey.” State television and other media controlled by Kocharian, for their part, have cited Turkish press commentaries saying that Ter-Petrosian’s return to power would be welcomed by Armenia’s historical foe.

“Speaking about my being pro-Turkish are individuals who had sheepishly served Turks during a lengthy period of their adult life,” Ter-Petrosian shot back in a blistering reminder of the fact that Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian had held senior positions in the Communist hierarchy of Nagorno-Karabakh at a time when it was ruled by Azerbaijan.

Ter-Petrosian stressed that three generations of his family “fought against the Turks in one way or another,” recalling in particular their participation in a 1915 siege of several Armenian villages on the Turkish Mediterranean coast by Ottoman troops.

“My grandfather took part in the heroic battle of Musa Dagh; my seven-year-old father carried food and water to [Armenian] positions; while my mother was born in a cave in those days,” he told the crowd. “If French warships had not accidentally passed by the Musa Dagh coast, then I would not have existed and, to the delight of Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, spoken from this podium today.”

“In 1966, at the age of 21, during a demonstration held on the occasion of the genocide anniversary I was arrested [by the Soviet KGB] and kept in a Yerevan jail for about a week at a time when Kocharian and Sarkisian had not even heard about the word genocide,” he said.

Ter-Petrosian said he continues to believe that genocide recognition should not have been included on Armenia’s foreign policy agenda after his resignation in 1998. “It is time to understand by setting ultimatums and cornering Turkey nobody can force it to recognize the Armenian genocide,” he said. “I have no doubts that Turkey will sooner or later recognize the Armenian genocide, but that will take place not before a normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations but after the creation of an atmosphere of neighborhood, cooperation and trust between our countries.”

Ter-Petrosian at the same time rejected as “unacceptable and offensive” Turkey’s calls for the creation of a Turkish-Armenian commission of historians that would be tasked with determining whether the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians constituted a genocide. He also criticized Ankara for its furious reaction to genocide resolutions adopted by various countries of the world under pressure from their Armenian communities.

“Turkey must not confuse Armenia with the Diaspora and must not resent the latter’s behavior because the Diaspora is a consequence of the genocide,” he said. “Had it not committed a genocide, there would have been no Diaspora.”

Armenia’s first post-Communist government headed by Ter-Petrosian avoided raising the genocide issue in its dealings with Turkey throughout its tenure from 1990-1998. The Kocharian administration has likewise stood for an unconditional normalization of bilateral ties. However, it has declared genocide recognition a major foreign policy goal and welcomed relevant lobbying efforts by the Diaspora. The policy change was underscored by Kocharian’s 1998 speech at the UN General Assembly in which he urged Turkey to come to terms with one of the darkest episodes of its past.

Ter-Petrosian dismissed such actions as mere gimmicks that have only antagonized the Turks and made the memory of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians killed in 1915-1918 an “object of immoral haggling” in the international arena. He claimed that Yerevan’s policy and Diaspora lobbying in Europe enable EU governments opposed to Turkey’s entry to the bloc to “exploit the genocide issue.”

“Isn’t it clear that Armenia can neither facilitate, nor impede Turkey’s membership in the European Union?” he said. “So why on earth do we send letters to Brussels demanding that the EU does not start membership talks with Turkey or set genocide recognition as a precondition?”

“Isn’t it obvious that Turkey’s membership in the EU is beneficial for Armenia in the economic, political and security terms?” he added. “What is more dangerous: an EU member Turkey or a Turkey rejected by the West and oriented to the East?

“Or what is more preferable? An Armenia isolated from the West or an Armenia bordering the EU? Our country’s foreign policy should have clearly answered these questions a long time ago.”

The Kocharian administration says that Armenia supports, in principle, Turkey’s accession to the EU but believes that should happen only after Ankara drops its preconditions for normalizing relations with Yerevan. “Armenia does not regard Turkey's potential membership in the EU as a threat to national security,” Prime Minister Sarkisian wrote in a December 2006 article in “The Wall Street Journal.” “Quite the contrary. We hope it will mean that Turkey will change, and be in a better position to face both its history and future.”

In an interview with Reuters news agency last July, Sarkisian accused the EU of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s long-standing economic blockade of Armenia. "Europeans are shy over these issues. They love to talk about human rights, about democratic values but it's much easier to talk rather than to implement anything," he complained.

Armenian lobbying groups in Europe take a harder line, saying that genocide recognition should be a precondition for Turkey’s EU membership. One of them, the Brussels-based European Armenian Federation, plans to stage an anti-Turkish demonstration in the Belgian capital on Friday. The EU’s governing Council is scheduled to meet on that day to discuss stalled accession talks with Ankara.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Presidential elections scheduled for February 19

09.11.2007

YEREVAN (YERKIR) - Garegin Azarian, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia, said that the date for the presidential election has been set for February 19, 2008. He made the statement for the Public Television and Public Radio. Later today the schedule of the main arrangements for the preparation and conduct of the election will be determined at the CEC meeting.

The official statement says that according to Part 2 of the Article 88 of RA Electoral Code, CEC President Garegin Azaeryan is authorized to inform that in conformity with Article 51 of RA Constitution, the presidential elections will be held on February 19, 2008.

According to Part 3 of the Article 88 of RA Electoral Code, the day of the election is declared a day-off.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

DIASPORA-LINKED PARTIES REAFFIRM COMMON POSITION ON KARABAKH, GENOCIDE

6, November 2007
Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
By Astghik Bedevian

Two of Armenia’s oldest traditional political parties wielding considerable influence in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora have reaffirmed their common stance on the foreign policy agenda of Armenians despite differences that exist between them in issues related to domestic politics in Armenia.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, ARF) and the Ramkavar-Azatakan (Liberal-Democratic) Party held a joint forum in Yerevan on Tuesday to discuss a wide range of issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the ongoing efforts aimed at ensuring an international recognition of the Armenian genocide, the rights of ethnic Armenians in Georgia’s Javakheti province, as well as internal political issues in Armenia.

Representatives of both parties stated they have no differences on the problems of Nagorno-Karabakh and the genocide.

Armenia’s oldest traditional party, Social Democratic Hunchakian Party, was also expected to participate in the forum, but refused at the last moment. Hunchakian, which also has large presence in the Armenian Diaspora, is known to have vocally endorsed ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian’s bid to contest presidency in next year’s elections in Armenia.

“We have the task of representing Armenian problems and Armenia in the world. These are issues where we can cooperate, but we can support different candidates. It can happen and there is no tragedy in it,” ARF Bureau representative Hrant Markarian said

“We should have solidarity at least in pan-Armenian questions,” he added. “Rivalry between Dashnaktsutyun and Ramkavar-Azatakan has a long history. If we find the strength to sit down at a table and discuss issues common for both sides, it should also become an example for Armenia’s political life.”

Dashnaktsutyun has declared its clear intention to field its own candidate in Armenia’s presidential elections scheduled for early next year. Its congress is due to pick a candidate between two nominees later this month.

Vahan Hovannisian, one of the party’s nominees, said regarding Ramkavar-Azatakan: “An ideological rival has a greater value for us than competing with a featureless mass devoid of any ideology.”

Vice-Chairman of the Ramkavar-Azatakan Party Asatur Devletian, for his part, did not exclude a scenario in which the emerging cooperation with Dashnaktsutyun will lead to their support for the party’s candidate at the presidential election. “It is not ruled out, but there has been no discussion and there is no decision on that yet,” he said.

Devletian also said there is no decision on the unification of the Ramkavar-Azatakan structure operating in Armenia with former Karabakh defense minister Samvel Babayan’s Dashink party and Albert Bazeyan’s National Rebirth party.

“A common meeting is needed for Ramkavar-Azatakan to make any decision,” he said, adding that the party currently based outside Armenia plans to relocate its central headquarters to Yerevan in the future.

Both Ramkavar-Azatakan and Dashanktsutyun were founded in the late 19th century when Armenians lived under the Ottoman Empire. The two currently operate both in Armenia and in countries where the Armenian Diaspora is present.

In 1917, Dashnaktsutyun was instrumental in the creation of the short-lived first Republic of Armenia which fell to the Soviet Bolsheviks in 1920. The party established itself within Armenian Diaspora communities after its leadership was exiled by the communists.

Relations between Dashnaktsutyun and Ramkavar-Azatakan are known to have been cool outside Armenia during the years when Armenia was a Soviet republic stemming from differing attitudes towards the Soviet Union. The liberal Ramkavars strongly supported the then Armenian republic, while the socialist Dashnaks favored a tough anti-Soviet line.

After the fall of the USSR both parties reestablished their branches in Armenia. Currently, Dashnaktsutyun is part of the ruling government coalition.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Opposition Figure Unexpectedly Set Free

Armenialiberty.org, Armenia - Sep 7, 2007
By Ruzanna Stepanian and Ruzanna Khachatrian

Aleksandr Arzumanian, a former foreign minister opposed to Armenia’s current leadership, was unexpectedly set free late Thursday after spending four months in jail on charges of being illegally financed from abroad.

Law-enforcement authorities made it clear on Friday that the charges have not been dropped and that Arzumanian may still stand trial for what they regard as money laundering. Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian said he personally ordered the surprise release in view of new facts that emerged during the politically charged investigation

Arzumanian, who has repeatedly rejected the accusations as unfounded and politically motivated, briefly spoke to RFE/RL moments after his release from the basement jail of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS). “I was asleep when prison guards woke and told me to go home,” he said by phone.

The former minister, who set up last year a small opposition group campaigning for regime change in the country, was reluctant to comment on his release. “I came out of the prison two minutes ago and am very tired,” he said. “I can’t wait to go back to my family and kiss my child. I don’t care about anything else right now.”

Arzumanian avoided any contacts with media the next day. Family members said he will speak up next week.

Arzumanian was set free just one week after a Yerevan court agreed to let the NSS keep him under arrest for two more months, dismissing protests from his defense lawyer. The court ruled that the oppositionist could obstruct the ongoing investigation, have “illegal influence” on investigators and even go into hiding if he were to be set free.

Arzumanian, who had served as Armenia’s foreign minister from 1996-1998, was arrested on May 7 on charges of illegally receiving a large amount of money from Levon Markos, a fugitive Russian businessman of Armenian descent. His arrest came two days after NSS officers searched his Yerevan apartment and confiscated $55,400 worth of cash kept there.

They also searched and confiscated a similar sum in the Yerevan home of Vahan Shirkhanian, another former government minister and a senior member of Arzumanian’s Civic Resistance Movement. But unlike Arzumanian, Shirkhanian was not prosecuted for attempting to “legalize revenues obtained by criminal means.” Both men deny being financed by Markos.

The NSS faced more questions about the credibility of its case when a Moscow-based friend of Arzumanian’s, Aleksandr Aghazarian, publicly stated that he is the one who sent the money to the former minister. Two NSS officers and a prosecutor were sent to Moscow shortly afterwards to investigate the claims. The security agency said last month that it has asked Russian law-enforcement authorities to check their veracity and look into the legality of Aghazarian’s revenues.

“I issued the order [to release Arzumanian] because I made sure that our law-enforcement bodies have done everything in Armenia and the Russian Federation within the framework of the criminal case,” Prosecutor-General Hovsepian told reporters.

Hovsepian said he believes Russian prosecutors will take “a lot of time” to respond to their Armenian colleagues’ inquiry. “In these circumstances, I found it inexpedient to keep Arzumanian under arrest,” he explained.

The chief Armenian prosecutor insisted that Arzumanian is not a political prisoner, dismissing claims to the contrary made by many opposition leaders. He said he believes Arzumanian is guilty of money laundering.

“Those sums were sent from Russian by means of illegal bank transfers and in the name of other individuals acting as a front [for the recipient,]” Hovsepian said, adding that Arzumanian has failed to explain “the need for receving and spending those sums.”

Arzumanian’s lawyer Hovik Arsenian, meanwhile, said on Friday that his client can not be prosecuted even if the money sent to him is found to be of dubious origin. Arsenian and other critics of the criminal case argue that Armenians receive at least $1 billion in cash remittances from their relatives and friends working abroad and that Armenian law does not obligate them to prove that the money was earned legally.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Agreement on setting up coalition signed

06.06.2007

YEREVAN (YERKIR) - The Republican Party of Armenia, represented by Prime Minister and the RPA board chairman Serzh Sargsian, and the Prosperous Armenia party, represented by the party's president, Gagik Tsarukian, signed an agreement today at the president's office in the presenece of President Robert Kocharian.

The coalition, in turn, signed a cooperation agreement with the ARF, represented by the ARF Supreme Body representative Armen Rustamian.

The signed document are aimed at working out a joint program of the government with making use of the programs of the Republican Party and the Prosperous Armenia. Their programs contain provisions contained also in the ARF program.

The Political Coalition and the Cooperation have announced that the priorities of the government will be the stable development of the economy, security, the reduction of shadow economy, a fair mechanism of distributing income, encouraging of economy directed to export levels increase, fighting corruption, bringing legislation in line with constitutional amendments, implementation of balance and restraint mechanism between the branches of government, ensuring the establishment of a civil society, reforms in government service.

The agreements define the formats of the political coalition and the cooperation in the government.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

2008 Coming Into Focus: Think tank pits Serzh against Tsarukyan

Jun 4, 2007
ArmeniaNow.com, Armenia
By Sara Khojoyan - ArmeniaNow reporter

While Armenia looks forward to distribution of mandates in the National Assembly and formation of a new government, international think tanks make forecasts on the future president of the country.

The highly-regarded Jane’s Information Group speculates that the battle for the president’s post will mainly evolve between the leader of Republican Party of Armenia, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and the leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan. The prediction appears in the June issue of Jane’s Foreign Report.

“Serzh Sargsyan’s major rival at the presidential run will be the founder and the leader of PAP, NA member and tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan,” says the report. It adds, Gagik Tsarukyan strengthened his position as Sargsyan’s ‘only actual rival’ after he got 15 percent at the May 12th election.

Jane’s analysts say the PM position will be Sargsyan’s advantage in the upcoming campaign: “The support the PM’s position [will give to Sargsyan] is a double-edged weapon. On the one hand the position gives Sargsyan an opportunity to use state [administrative] leverages and to manifest him as a national leader. On the other hand, the position is a challenge: this is the first time Sargsyan gets a high position like this and appears in the center of everyone’s attention.”

Reflecting on the future president, the analysts at Jane’s mention he will “be forced to take complicated steps to provide balance.”

Consequently, the most important thing in the future presidential election will be “the candidates’ stand on foreign policy issues, the solutions they offer for regionally isolated Armenia, increasingly dependent on Russia.”

“Armenia will definitely remain within the sphere of Russia’s influence and the slightest shift to the West will cause harsh response from Russia. Armenia’s future president will face a hard task of overcoming the present international isolation by providing a balance in foreign policy,” Jane’s Intelligence reports.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Gyumri Mayor’s Son Charged In High-Profile Shootout

Friday 25, May 2007
Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
By Satenik Vantsian in Gyumri

Prosecutors announced on Friday a nationwide hunt for a son of Gyumri Mayor Vartan Ghukasian after identifying him as a key participant of the weekend shootout in Armenia’s second largest city that left at least one person wounded.

Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General officially confirmed reports that the gunfight involved two groups of young men led by Spartak Ghukasian and Rustam Sargsian, son of a prominent local businessman. It said police have been instructed to take “all necessary measures” to find and arrest both men already charged under relevant articles of the Armenian Criminal Code.

“Nobody has been arrested in connection with this case so far,” the spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency, Sona Truzian, told RFE/RL, denying rumors about dozens of arrests circulating in Gyumri. But she said the investigators have already found two expensive cars, two assault rifles, and two pistols used in the shootout.

The investigators also questioned on Thursday Mayor Ghukasian in connection with the incident. In a televised interview broadcast earlier this week, he vehemently denied his son’s involvement. He also accused the media and his rivals of discrediting his family which was widely linked with other instances of violence reported in Gyumri in recent years.

The flamboyant mayor, who is a senior member of the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), was seriously wounded in a mysterious drive-by shooting that killed three of his bodyguards about two months ago. Ghukasian has linked the apparent assassination attempt to his membership in the HHK.

There were suggestions that the latest shootout may have also been politically motivated as the fugitive Sargsian’s father is a local leader of the pro-presidential Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), one of the HHK’s main rivals in the May 12 parliamentary elections. But according to the prosecutors, the shootout was sparked by a violent dispute between Sargsian and a friend of Spartak Ghukasian’s that broke out in a Gyumri restaurant earlier on Sunday. Truzian said the man, Norayr Soloyan, picked a fight with Sargsian before being shot and wounded in the leg.

Soloyan was taken to a Gyumri hospital and is being treated there under police guard. A statement by the prosecutors said he will be arrested and prosecuted after recovering from the wound.

Truzian insisted that only one person, an elderly woman, suffered a minor injury in the shootout itself when a stray bullet hit her in the arm. She also said the investigators see no link between the incident and the disappearance of a 12-year-boy in Gyumri on Sunday. The boy, identified as Robert Simonian, reportedly went missing at around the same time.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Dashnaks Offered To Stay In Government

Wednesday 23, May 2007
Armenia Liberty
By Irina Hovannisian

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) said on Wednesday that it has been offered senior positions in a new government to be formed by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian and is currently weighing up its options.

Sarkisian appears willing to share power with Dashnaktsutyun and other parties loyal to President Robert Kocharian, even though his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) won an outright majority in parliament in this month’s general elections. Observers believe he is thereby trying to broaden political support for his bid to succeed Kocharian early next year.

Meeting with Western election observers on Tuesday, Sarkisian said the HHK is ready to “engage able parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forces into both the government and the National Assembly” in order to maximize popular trust in his new cabinet. A government statement cited him as saying that “negotiations are already being conducted in that direction.”

Armen Rustamian, a top Dashnaktsutyun leader, confirmed that the nationalist party, which is represented in Sarkisian’s outgoing cabinet, is involved in those talks but refused to give details. “We are holding discussions right now and I wouldn’t like to make any comments now,” he told RFE/RL.

“There have been various kinds of offers, but we can not say anything concrete at the moment,” Rustamian said, adding that a decision will be made “very soon.”

Another Dashnaktsutyun leader, Education Minister Levon Mkrtchian, said he hopes his party will choose to stay in government and allow him to retain his job. “I have a desire to work because we have just launched a program [of education reforms] and can see its first results,” he told RFE/RL.

“It all depends on the party’s decision,” added Mkrtchian. “That is, if Dashnaktsutyun decides to be part [of the new government] I will keep working. If it decides otherwise, I will comply with that decision.”

Rustamian has repeatedly stated before that Dashnaktsutyun will not serve as a “fifth wheel” in a coalition government not dependent on its parliamentary backing. Nonetheless, the influential party seems ready, in principle, to remain in government, despite the fact that the HHK will be able to single-handedly control the parliament.

During the election campaign Dashnaktsutyun leaders implicitly laid claim to the posts of defense and education ministers. Newspaper reports have said that they are also demanding the post of parliament speaker. It is not clear if they are ready to endorse Sarkisian’s presidential bid in return.

The Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of businessman Gagik Tsarukian, which came in a distant second in the elections, is also presumably involved in the ongoing talks. Despite winning 25 parliament seats, the pro-Kocharian party is hardly in a position to dictate to the HHK, though.

Neither Tsarukian, nor other BHK leaders have commented on their party’s performance in the polls so far. This is construed by commentators as a sign that the election outcome did not live up to their expectations.

Under the Armenian constitution, Kocharian has to appoint a prime minister nominated by the parliament majority within ten days from the first session of the newly elected National Assembly expected on June 7. The new premier will have 20 days to form his cabinet.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Political scientist believes that the Armenian electors “for the first time voted rationally”

22-05-2007
Mediamax News Agency, Armenia

Yerevan, May 22. /Mediamax/. Political scientist, Director of the Caucasian Media Institute Aleksandr Iskandarian stated today that from the point of view of the international community, the parliamentary elections in Armenia were “a serious step in the direction of electoral development”.

Mediamax reports that the political scientist noted that the international observers gave a quite high assessment to the elections in Armenia, and this is of serious importance for the formation of a positive image of the country. Aleksandr Iskandarian noted that the given assessment was “especially jealously perceived by Azerbaijan”.

According to the political scientist, “it would be possible to cheat the international observers if they were assessing the political culture of Armenia, but they were assessing the technologies of the electoral process, and they were not cheated from this point of view”.

Aleksandr Iskandarian also stressed that “a serious step in the direction of development of the political system became the fact that the voting process of Armenian electors for the first time was not of mass emotional character, but a rational one”.--0--

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SIGNALS PRESIDENTIAL AMBITIONS

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Eurasia Daily Monitor
By Emil Danielyan

Vartan Oskanian, a former U.S. citizen who has served as Armenia’s foreign minister since 1998, is increasingly signaling his intention to contest the presidential election of 2008. There is mounting speculation in Yerevan that it is he, rather than the powerful Defense Minister Serge Sarkisian, who is President Robert Kocharian’s preferred successor. Sarkisian’s allies exposed their unease over Oskanian’s possible presidential ambitions by attacking him in parliament last week.

In recent months Oskanian has repeatedly and pointedly declined to rule out his participation in the presidential ballot, which would hardly sit well with either Sarkisian or Armenian opposition leaders. The suave 51-year-old minister, who rarely commented on domestic politics until recently, is now taking every opportunity to publicly deplore chronic vote rigging, government corruption, and mismanagement.

Oskanian first dropped a hint about his presidential run at a news conference last July, calling for urgent “second-generation reforms” in Armenia that he said would “hit the economic and political interests of the [ruling] elite.” He said he is ready to help implement such reforms and warned against a repeat of the serious fraud that has marred almost every election held in the country since the Soviet collapse in 1991. These remarks followed media reports that Kocharian might be grooming him for the presidency.

That Kocharian, who is expected to quit after completing his second five-year term in office in 2008, would like to hand over power to his longtime defense minister and most powerful lieutenant has long seemed a given. However, there are growing indications that the Armenian leader is keen to counterweight the influence of Sarkisian and his governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The HHK is still considered the favorite to win next spring’s Armenian parliamentary elections by again making the most of its grip on many government bodies, its vast financial resources, and Sarkisian’s clout.

Oskanian underscored his increasingly outspoken stance in an extensive interview with the Haykakan Zhamanak daily published on October 19. He sought to distance himself from the Armenian government, citing an “abyss” separating it from the people and stressing the fact that he has not attended 80% of cabinet sessions due to his frequent trips abroad. Furthermore, he implied that only a new government equipped with a “right agenda” could meet key challenges facing the country. One of those challenges, in his words, is the proper conduct of the next parliamentary and presidential elections.

“Everyone must realize that we simply have no more room for holding bad elections because this time the damage to our people would be not only moral but also material,” he said before issuing what appeared to be a thinly veiled warning to the HHK: “If there are violations and if there are [negative] consequences as a result, it will be obvious who those people are and they must be really held answerable before the people.”

The government’s response was not late in coming. A young HHK lawmaker, whose main job is to publicly pour scorn on the party’s detractors, accused Oskanian on the parliament floor on October 25 of “forgetting his main functions and external challenges facing the country.” “He is unhappy with the government’s policies but remains in office,” said Armen Ashotian. Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, the nominal head of the HHK, added that Oskanian should not be surprised by such attacks.

Oskanian, meanwhile, only added to talk of his presidential designs by stating in the Haykakan Zhamanak interview that he will resign as foreign minister in 2008 in any case. He claimed that he still has not decided to run for president. Whether he would stand a good chance of winning the presidential election is a separate matter.

Born and raised in Syria, Oskanian was still a Syrian national of Armenian descent when he graduated from Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in 1979 before moving to the United States to study international relations at Harvard and two other top universities. He returned to Armenia in 1992 to work, as an American citizen, at the former Soviet republic’s newly established Foreign Ministry. Oskanian surrendered his U.S. passport to obtain Armenian citizenship when Kocharian appointed him as foreign minister shortly after coming to power in early 1998. He has since been largely unaffected by the dramatic political battles in Yerevan, carrying out Kocharian’s “complementary” foreign policy and representing Armenia in peace talks with Azerbaijan.

Oskanian’s knowledge of international affairs has earned him the kind of respectability in the West that few other Armenian politicians can boast. Also, unlike most other members of the ruling regime, he has not been implicated in corruption scandals. His main weakness is a lack of a power base and the fact that, in many ways, he is still an outsider in the Armenian political scene.

Yet assuming that Kocharian is encouraging his presidential bid, Oskanian can count on the backing of a new but extremely ambitious party led by Gagik Tsarukian, the country’s top “oligarch” close to the Armenian president. The party, Prosperous Armenia, is already busy preparing for the parliamentary polls, having embarked on a massive distribution of agricultural aid to impoverished farmers across the country. The unprecedented campaign, heavily advertised by Tsarukian-controlled TV channels, has already prompted serious concern by the Republican and other mainstream political groups.

Some local observers have speculated that Prosperous Armenia’s most likely presidential candidate is none other than Oskanian. The latter has also been linked with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, an influential member of the ruling coalition that has already indicated that it will not endorse Sarkisian for the presidency.

(Aravot, October 26; Hayk, October 25; Haykakan Zhamanak, October 19; RFE/RL Armenia Report, July 14)

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.