Tweet
ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SARKSYAN PROMISES STABILITY AFTER ELECTION VICTORY
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Feb 19 2013
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan promised on Tuesday to make the
country secure and stable after cruising to victory in an election
which international vote monitors said lacked real competition.
But Sarksyan faces a challenge in his second five-year term to prevent
tensions increasing with Azerbaijan over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh that could lead to a new war in the South Caucasus,
where pipelines carry Caspian oil and gas to Europe.
Preliminary results showed Sarksyan won 58.6 percent of the votes cast
in Monday's election, enough to avoid a second-round run-off. His
closest rival, US-born former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian,
trailed on nearly 37 percent.
"Armenia chose the path towards a safe Armenia and I am happy and
proud of the fact that every resident of Armenia will be on that
path," Sarksyan, 58, told celebrating supporters.
International observers said the vote was an improvement on recent
elections in the former Soviet republic, including the 2008
presidential ballot in which 10 people were killed.
"However, the limited field of candidates meant that the election was
not genuinely competitive," representatives of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
said in a statement.
"The candidates who did run were able to campaign in a free atmosphere
and to present their views to voters, but the campaign overall failed
to engage the public's interest."
Several of Sarksyan's potential rivals, most notably former President
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, decided not to run because they feared the
election would be skewed in the president's favor.
A minor candidate was shot and wounded during campaigning, and police
received 70 complaints of voting violations. The result was in line
with opinion polls, however.
One group, the opposition Heritage Party, alleged some ballots cast
for Sarksyan's opponents had been thrown out and said it planned a
protest in the capital Yerevan later on Tuesday. It was not clear if
other parties would take part.
Armenians had expected Sarksyan to win and there was little
celebrating. "I expect that things will get better in the next five
years. And after that of course we will need to change [the
president]. That's all," said Yerevan resident Roza Atovyan.
Another woman in Yerevan, Elana Akapova, said: "The president has a
lot of administrative power. Therefore it's natural that he received
the majority of the vote."
The result strengthens Sarksyan's hold on Armenia, which borders Iran,
Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, after his Republican Party won a
parliamentary election last year.
Sarksyan's promises of economic recovery went down well with voters in
the country of 3.2 million, where more than 30 percent live below the
poverty line. The average monthly wage is about $300 and unemployment
was 16 percent last year.
Armenia is an important potential ally for the West which is trying to
ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, although tightening
international economic sanctions on its neighbors could affect
Armenia's trade and economy.
Sarksyan has outlined no big policy changes and investors and foreign
governments are worried by Armenia's fraught relations with
Azerbaijan.
About 30,000 people were killed in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh in
the 1990s and Azerbaijan uses its diplomatic and economic muscle to
isolate Yerevan. It has vastly increased military spending in the last
few years.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside
Azerbaijan, which Armenia-backed rebels wrested from Azeri troops.
Firefights along the border still kill troops on both sides and
experts say a wider conflict is possible.
Sarksyan has accused Azerbaijan of threatening a new conflict.
Azerbaijan denies it is the aggressor and says Armenians should hand
back control of the mountainous enclave.
"In terms of domestic policy, we should expect a continuation of
deepening ties with the West and the European Union," said Richard
Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center think tank in
Yerevan.
He ruled out a breakthrough over Nagorno-Karabakh, saying: "Both sides
remain too far apart."
Without a shift in regional politics, durable economic growth will be
difficult for Armenia while its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey
remain closed. Turkey shut the border in 1993 in solidarity with its
ethnic kin in Azerbaijan.
Most regional pipeline projects between growing regional power Turkey
and the oil and gas-producing Azerbaijan isolate Armenia, making
Yerevan more dependent on ties with its Soviet-era master Moscow,
which has a military base on Armenian soil.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-307513-armenian-president-sarksyan-promises-stability-after-election-victory.html
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Feb 19 2013
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan promised on Tuesday to make the
country secure and stable after cruising to victory in an election
which international vote monitors said lacked real competition.
But Sarksyan faces a challenge in his second five-year term to prevent
tensions increasing with Azerbaijan over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh that could lead to a new war in the South Caucasus,
where pipelines carry Caspian oil and gas to Europe.
Preliminary results showed Sarksyan won 58.6 percent of the votes cast
in Monday's election, enough to avoid a second-round run-off. His
closest rival, US-born former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian,
trailed on nearly 37 percent.
"Armenia chose the path towards a safe Armenia and I am happy and
proud of the fact that every resident of Armenia will be on that
path," Sarksyan, 58, told celebrating supporters.
International observers said the vote was an improvement on recent
elections in the former Soviet republic, including the 2008
presidential ballot in which 10 people were killed.
"However, the limited field of candidates meant that the election was
not genuinely competitive," representatives of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
said in a statement.
"The candidates who did run were able to campaign in a free atmosphere
and to present their views to voters, but the campaign overall failed
to engage the public's interest."
Several of Sarksyan's potential rivals, most notably former President
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, decided not to run because they feared the
election would be skewed in the president's favor.
A minor candidate was shot and wounded during campaigning, and police
received 70 complaints of voting violations. The result was in line
with opinion polls, however.
One group, the opposition Heritage Party, alleged some ballots cast
for Sarksyan's opponents had been thrown out and said it planned a
protest in the capital Yerevan later on Tuesday. It was not clear if
other parties would take part.
Armenians had expected Sarksyan to win and there was little
celebrating. "I expect that things will get better in the next five
years. And after that of course we will need to change [the
president]. That's all," said Yerevan resident Roza Atovyan.
Another woman in Yerevan, Elana Akapova, said: "The president has a
lot of administrative power. Therefore it's natural that he received
the majority of the vote."
The result strengthens Sarksyan's hold on Armenia, which borders Iran,
Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, after his Republican Party won a
parliamentary election last year.
Sarksyan's promises of economic recovery went down well with voters in
the country of 3.2 million, where more than 30 percent live below the
poverty line. The average monthly wage is about $300 and unemployment
was 16 percent last year.
Armenia is an important potential ally for the West which is trying to
ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, although tightening
international economic sanctions on its neighbors could affect
Armenia's trade and economy.
Sarksyan has outlined no big policy changes and investors and foreign
governments are worried by Armenia's fraught relations with
Azerbaijan.
About 30,000 people were killed in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh in
the 1990s and Azerbaijan uses its diplomatic and economic muscle to
isolate Yerevan. It has vastly increased military spending in the last
few years.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside
Azerbaijan, which Armenia-backed rebels wrested from Azeri troops.
Firefights along the border still kill troops on both sides and
experts say a wider conflict is possible.
Sarksyan has accused Azerbaijan of threatening a new conflict.
Azerbaijan denies it is the aggressor and says Armenians should hand
back control of the mountainous enclave.
"In terms of domestic policy, we should expect a continuation of
deepening ties with the West and the European Union," said Richard
Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center think tank in
Yerevan.
He ruled out a breakthrough over Nagorno-Karabakh, saying: "Both sides
remain too far apart."
Without a shift in regional politics, durable economic growth will be
difficult for Armenia while its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey
remain closed. Turkey shut the border in 1993 in solidarity with its
ethnic kin in Azerbaijan.
Most regional pipeline projects between growing regional power Turkey
and the oil and gas-producing Azerbaijan isolate Armenia, making
Yerevan more dependent on ties with its Soviet-era master Moscow,
which has a military base on Armenian soil.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-307513-armenian-president-sarksyan-promises-stability-after-election-victory.html