Tweet
ARMENIA PROFILE
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17404534
16 March 2012
President Serge Sarkisian's election was controversial President:
Serge Sarkisian
In presidential elections held in February 2008, Prime Minister Serge
Sarkisian was declared winner in the first round with 52.9% of the
vote. But thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets to
protest the poll, which they say was rigged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Mr Sarkisian and
Europe's main election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said the vote had mostly met
international standards.
Outgoing President and close ally, Robert Kocharian, handpicked the
prime minister to succeed him after Sarkisian's Republican Party
swept parliamentary polls in May 2007.
Serge Sarkisian was a Soviet soldier and later worked in the
defence-committee of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He
was then appointed Armenia's minister of defence. He had a spell
as minister of national security and head of the presidential staff
before returning to the defence ministry.
Mr Sarkisian faces the challenge of restarting stalled talks in the
dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. He has also pledged to use his time
as leader to improve living standards for the Armenian people.
In 2009, he signed signed a historic deal to re-establish diplomatic
ties with Turkey, but the pact broke down when Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted it depended on Armenia resolving its
dispute with Azerbaijan first.
Mr Sarkisian was born in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1954.
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17404534
16 March 2012
President Serge Sarkisian's election was controversial President:
Serge Sarkisian
In presidential elections held in February 2008, Prime Minister Serge
Sarkisian was declared winner in the first round with 52.9% of the
vote. But thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets to
protest the poll, which they say was rigged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Mr Sarkisian and
Europe's main election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said the vote had mostly met
international standards.
Outgoing President and close ally, Robert Kocharian, handpicked the
prime minister to succeed him after Sarkisian's Republican Party
swept parliamentary polls in May 2007.
Serge Sarkisian was a Soviet soldier and later worked in the
defence-committee of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He
was then appointed Armenia's minister of defence. He had a spell
as minister of national security and head of the presidential staff
before returning to the defence ministry.
Mr Sarkisian faces the challenge of restarting stalled talks in the
dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. He has also pledged to use his time
as leader to improve living standards for the Armenian people.
In 2009, he signed signed a historic deal to re-establish diplomatic
ties with Turkey, but the pact broke down when Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted it depended on Armenia resolving its
dispute with Azerbaijan first.
Mr Sarkisian was born in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1954.