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Presidential Candidate Shot; Says He Will Seek 2-Week Delay of Vote

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  • Presidential Candidate Shot; Says He Will Seek 2-Week Delay of Vote

    Armenian presidential candidate shot; says he will seek 2-week delay of vote

    (News.am, Arsen Sarkisyan/ Associated Press ) - In this photo taken on
    Saturday, Jan. 23, 2013, Paruir Airikian, candidate for the Armenian
    presidency, attends a news conference in Yerevan, Armenia. The
    longshot candidate for the Armenian presidency was shot in the chest
    by an unidentified gunman late Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 officials said.
    He was hospitalized in stable condition as police searched for the
    shooter, while the speaker of parliament suggested the election could
    be delayed.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/armenia-presidential-candidate-shot-and-wounded-parliament-speaker-says-vote-could-be-delayed/2013/02/01/7c66b1ca-6c37-11e2-8f4f-2abd96162ba8_story.html

    By Associated Press, Published: February 1

    YEREVAN, Armenia - The shooting of a presidential candidate threw
    Armenia's election into disarray Friday, with the wounded victim
    saying he will call for a delay of the vote.

    Paruir Airikian, 63, was shot and wounded by an unidentified assailant
    outside his home in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on Thursday just
    before midnight. Airikian said from the hospital after surgery Friday
    that he would initiate proceedings as allowed by the constitution to
    delay the vote for 15 days due to his condition, but not longer.



    He is one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 race in this landlocked
    former Soviet republic and wasn't expected to get more than 1 percent
    of the vote. But postponing the election could help opponents of
    President Serge Sarkisian, who was expected to easily win a second
    five-year term.

    Sarkisian said after visiting Airikian in the hospital that the
    perpetrators of the attack `obviously had an intention to influence
    the normal election process.'

    Armenia - a landlocked nation of 3 million people bordering
    Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey in the volatile Caucasus - has
    been known for its turbulent and often violent politics. A 1999 attack
    on Parliament by six gunmen killed the prime minister, the speaker and
    six other officials and lawmakers.

    In 2006, a deputy chief of tax police was blown up in his car. Police
    found the man who placed explosives in the vehicle, but failed to
    determine who ordered the killing.

    In March 2008, clashes between police and supporters of former
    President Levon Ter-Petrosian, who lost to Sarkisian in a vote the
    previous month, left 10 people dead and more than 250 injured. Later
    that year, a deputy police chief was shot and killed in the elevator
    of his apartment building, a slaying that remains unsolved.

    Sarkisian, a conservative, has stolen the opposition's thunder by
    talking with critics and allowing opposition protests. In 2009, the
    Parliament granted a sweeping amnesty to hundreds of people detained
    for taking part in the post-election violence.

    Sarkisian also has overseen a return to economic growth after years of
    stagnation and has managed to reduce the country's endemic poverty.
    Recent opinion surveys show him getting the support of up to 70
    percent of the population.

    `Sarkisian has a clear advantage ... and he doesn't need
    destabilization,' said Stepan Grigorian, an independent political
    analyst.

    He said Sarkisian is poised to win the vote anyway, but if he performs
    worse than initially expected, that could give more leverage to fringe
    groups. `That could make the president more dependent on such marginal
    groups,' Grigorian said.

    Sarkisian's closest rival is Raffi Hovanessian, a former foreign
    minister who has campaigned on populist promises to sharply increase
    state salaries and pensions.

    Hovanessian also has pledged to recognize the independence of
    Nagorno-Karabakh, a stance favored by nationalists. The
    Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and some adjacent territory have
    been under the control of Armenian troops and local ethnic Armenian
    forces since a six-year war ended with a truce in 1994.

    Armenia has faced severe economic challenges caused by the closing of
    its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey because of the conflict and
    international efforts to mediate a settlement have produced no result.
    Sarkisian, like his predecessors, has stopped short of recognizing the
    territory as independent.

    At the same time, he has taken a tough stance on other foreign policy
    issues, pushing strongly for international recognition that the
    killings of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915
    constituted genocide. Turkey has furiously opposed that.

    Armenian Parliament Speaker Ovik Abramian, who visited the wounded
    candidate in the hospital, said Friday that the attack was a `blow to
    the Armenian statehood' and that the election could now be delayed.
    The nation's election chief, however, has not commented on the
    possibility.

    Armenia's constitution requires the vote to be postponed for two weeks
    if one of the candidates is unable to take part due to circumstances
    beyond his control. A further 40-day delay beyond that is also
    possible.

    `I have no intention to seek a 40-day delay as I realize that we are
    in a process that needs to be finalized,' Airikian said in televised
    remarks from the hospital. `But I will have to choose the option of
    postponing the vote by 15 days.'

    Yerevan Clinical Hospital's chief doctor, Ara Minasian, said Airikian
    was being treated for a single gunshot wound and remained in stable
    condition. Doctors successfully operated to remove a bullet in his
    shoulder.

    Airikian, an also-ran in three previous Armenian presidential
    elections, was a dissident during Soviet times. He was first arrested
    by the KGB when he was 20, and spent 17 years in prison, according to
    his party.

    In 1987, after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched his liberal
    reforms, Airikian created the National Self-Determination Party. When
    the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted the next year, he
    accused the Soviet authorities of stirring up violence and was evicted
    from the country.

    Airikian soon returned to his homeland and in the 1990s had senior
    positions in Armenia's parliament and government.

    On Friday, Airikian blamed ex-Soviet KGB agents of launching the attack.

    `I would sincerely say that I see the style of special services of a
    foreign state, which haunted me for so long, not Russia, but its
    predecessor,' Airikian said. He added that they could have been
    worried by his push for Armenia's closer integration into Europe.

    Armenia has an economic and security pact with Russia and also hosts a
    Russian military base.

    U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the
    shooting of Airikian, adding that Washington expects the Armenian
    government to ensure a fair vote in line with the law.

    `If he's unable to campaign, we obviously call on Armenians to settle
    this constitutionally in a way that assures that these elections go
    forward in a way that is free and fair and protects the rights of all
    candidates,' she said.

    ____

    Bradley Klapper contributed to this report from Washington.

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