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TURKISH PRESIDENT CONGRATULATES ARMENIA'S SARKSYAN ON VICTORY
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Feb 21 2013
21 February 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has congratulated Armenian President
Serge Sarksyan on his electoral victory despite strained relations
between the two countries.
Sarksyan easily won a second five-year term in Monday's election,
getting nearly 59 percent of the vote. The closest of his six rivals,
American-born Raffi Hovanessian, polled 37 percent.
The Turkish president is the only high-level Turkish official to have
visited the landlocked Caucasian country, which is officially at war
with Turkey's ally Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
region. Gul's visit to Yerevan in 2008 was aimed at achieving a
breakthrough in mending relations between the two countries, who are
at odds over the mass slaughter of Armenians in Anatolia in 1915.
Despite Sarksyan's victory, thousands of supporters of Hovanessian
have protested the election results.
Hovanessian, Armenia's first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse
of the Soviet Union, has called the election unfair and rigged, and
declared himself the genuine winner.
On Wednesday, about 5,000 of his supporters gathered in the capital to
back Hovanessian's demands. Hovanessian challenged the incumbent to
come to the square in Yerevan, and some of his followers pledged to
remain there through the night.
From: Baghdasarian
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Feb 21 2013
21 February 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has congratulated Armenian President
Serge Sarksyan on his electoral victory despite strained relations
between the two countries.
Sarksyan easily won a second five-year term in Monday's election,
getting nearly 59 percent of the vote. The closest of his six rivals,
American-born Raffi Hovanessian, polled 37 percent.
The Turkish president is the only high-level Turkish official to have
visited the landlocked Caucasian country, which is officially at war
with Turkey's ally Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
region. Gul's visit to Yerevan in 2008 was aimed at achieving a
breakthrough in mending relations between the two countries, who are
at odds over the mass slaughter of Armenians in Anatolia in 1915.
Despite Sarksyan's victory, thousands of supporters of Hovanessian
have protested the election results.
Hovanessian, Armenia's first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse
of the Soviet Union, has called the election unfair and rigged, and
declared himself the genuine winner.
On Wednesday, about 5,000 of his supporters gathered in the capital to
back Hovanessian's demands. Hovanessian challenged the incumbent to
come to the square in Yerevan, and some of his followers pledged to
remain there through the night.
From: Baghdasarian