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  • Armenian Reporter - 3/1/2007 - front section

    ARMENIAN REPORTER

    PO Box 129
    Paramus, New Jersey 07652
    Tel: 1-201-226-1995
    Fax: 1-201-226-1660

    3191 Casitas Ave Ste 216
    Los Angeles CA 90039
    Tel: 1-323-671-1030
    Fax: 1-323-671-1033

    1 Yeghvard Hwy Fl 5
    Yerevan 0054 Armenia
    Tel: 374-10-367-195
    Fax: 374-10-367-195 fax

    Web: http://www.reporter.am
    Email: [email protected]

    March 1, 2008 -- From the front section

    To see the printed version of the newspaper, complete with photographs
    and additional content, visit www.reporter.am and download the pdf
    files. It's free.

    * * *

    BREAKING NEWS: At around 7 a.m. on Saturday, March 1, internal
    security forces removed protesters from Freedom Square. There was
    resistance. Mr. Ter-Petrossian has been taken to his home. Other have
    been arrested. Freedom Square is surrounded by security forces.

    * * *

    1. Sargsian builds coalition as protests continue in Yerevan (by Vincent Lima)
    * Baghdasarian gets security post
    * Ter-Petrossian appeals to top court

    2. The 1988 Sumgait massacre crystallized anti-Armenian hatred (by
    Tatul Hakobyan)
    * 20 years ago the city on the Caspian was a killing field

    3. Washington Briefing (by Emil Sanamyan)
    * State Department, members of Congress offer congratulations over
    Armenia elections
    * U.S. official: assistance to Armenia a "success story"
    * U.S. continues aid to Armenia's peacekeepers
    * Azerbaijan to pull out of Kosovo, and to renew push for UN
    resolution on Karabakh
    * Armenia, Georgia to launch military cooperation
    * U.S. Russia watchers weigh in on Putin-Medvedev succession

    4. Knollenberg, Pallone send letter to Rice asking for public rebuke
    of Azerbaijani president

    5. Trial continues in the murder of Hrant Dink (by Talin Suciyan)

    6. Nagorno-Karabakh insists on directly participating in the
    negotiations (by Armen Hakobyan)

    7. Post-election week is exhilarating and frustrating (by Betty
    Panossian-Ter Sarkissian)

    8. After the presidential elections in Armenia
    * A chronology of events

    9. Will the "Old Friend" become the new opposition? (by Armen Hakobyan)

    10. Bringing travel business to Armenia (by Betty Panossian-Ter Sarkissian)
    * Levon Travel celebrates its 15th anniversary in Yerevan

    11. Commentary: Neither side must come out as losers (Interview by
    Maria Titizan)
    * Presidential elections in Armenia tend to cause rather than solve
    conflicts, Hrair Tovmasian argues

    12. "We cannot allow a schism in society," Oskanian says
    * Cites "negative effects" on diplomacy

    13. Living in Armenia: The three presidents of modern-day Armenia (by
    Maria Titizian)

    14. Editorial: Democracy in Armenia

    ***************************************** **********************************

    1. Sargsian builds coalition as protests continue in Yerevan

    * Baghdasarian gets security post

    * Ter-Petrossian appeals to top court

    by Vincent Lima

    YEREVAN -- As tens of thousands of people continued a round-the-clock
    demonstration protesting the results of the presidential elections
    held on February 19, President-elect Serge Sargsian reached a
    cooperation agreement with Artur Baghdasarian, who had finished in
    third place and leads the larger of two opposition delegations in
    Armenia's National Assembly. Mr. Baghdasarian will be secretary of
    Armenia's National Security Council.

    Former president Levon Ter-Petrossian, who had come in second with
    one-fifth of the vote, led the protests, which are continuing at press
    time. Claiming that he has in fact won the election, Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian, who is staying in one of perhaps two dozen tens
    erected on Freedom Square, has announced that he will leave only to
    occupy the presidential palace.

    On February 29, Mr. Ter-Petrossian filed a claim with the
    Constitutional Court disputing the election results and calling on the
    court to order a new election.

    In each of the first few days after the election, Mr. Ter-Petrossian
    announced the names of senior figures who he claimed were defecting to
    his camp. Among them was Gagik Jhangirian, a deputy prosecutor
    general. (He was promptly fired for violating the ban on political
    activity by prosecutors. He was later arrested on illegal weapons
    charges.) Mr. Jhangirian had been deputy chair of the Central
    Electoral Commission during disputed elections in the course of Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian's presidency. Also among them were Deputy Foreign
    Minister Armen Baibourtian, Ambassador Rouben Shugarian (formerly
    posted in Washington), other ambassadors, and the spokesperson of the
    Foreign Ministry. All were promptly dismissed for violating the ban on
    political activity by diplomats.

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian also claimed that seven members of parliament
    from the governing coalition and senior officials in the Ministry of
    Defense were joining him.

    The defections stopped, however, on Saturday, February 23. On that
    day, President Kocharian met with senior officials of the armed
    forces, police, and national security apparatus and reiterated their
    constitutional responsibilities. Mr. Sargsian met with members of
    parliament from the governing coalition; the members, including most
    of those named by Mr. Ter-Petrossian as defectors, signed a statement
    congratulating Mr. Sargsian and rejecting Mr. Ter-Petrossian's
    tactics.

    * A call for unity

    On February 26, Mr. Sargsian staged a victory rally on Republic
    Square, a short walk from Freedom Square along the newly constructed
    Northern Avenue. At the rally, which was covered extensively on
    television, Mr. Sargsian thanked his supporters and also "those who
    voted for other candidates. We respect the opinion of our citizens and
    do not divide the society into 'our people' and 'theirs,' or, as some
    pseudodemocrats put it today, into 'us' and 'the scum of the nation.'
    Fascism and revanchism are alien to us."

    "Together we shall overcome this divide," he continued. "I ask you
    not to succumb to meanness, because those in the other square are our
    sisters and brothers. I am certain that they were driven to the square
    by a desire to have a better Armenia. Alas, they are not allowed to
    notice how they have been turned unwillingly into instruments by a
    vengeful and power-hungry few."

    Quoting scripture, Mr. Sargsian concluded that for everything there
    is a season. "Today is not the time to gather stones. Today is the
    time to let the stones drop. Today is not the time for spite and
    grudges. Today is the time for peace. Today is not the time to draw
    new boundaries. Today is the time for unity. Today is the time for
    work."

    In the days the followed, Mr. Sargsian held coalition talks with
    former adversaries. On Friday, February 29, he and Mr. Baghdasarian
    announced that they had reached an agreement.

    Mr. Sargsian said, "The position will allow him to be involved in
    the governance of the country, having complete information on all the
    processes and actively participating in them."

    Mr. Baghdasarian said that his talks with Mr. Sargsian "revealed
    something very important -- serious readiness and determination of the
    new president to combine our pre-election programs."

    Mr. Baghdasarian's party had been part of the governing coalition,
    and Mr. Baghdasarian the speaker of parliament, until a falling out in
    early 2006.

    Last April, in a meeting with a British diplomat, Mr. Baghdasarian
    was caught on tape urging the European Union to criticize the conduct
    of Armenia's next parliamentary elections. President Kocharian had
    characterized Mr. Baghdasarian's action as "a real manifestation of
    treason."

    More recently, on the eve of the election, Mr. Ter-Petrossian called
    Mr. Baghdasarian a traitor for refusing to withdraw his candidacy in
    Mr. Ter-Petrossian's favor. He repeated the accusation after the vote.

    Recent secretaries of the National Security Council have been
    Aleksan Harutiunian (1998~V99), Mr. Sargsian (1999~V2007), and Armen
    Gevorgian (2007 to the present).

    *************************************** ************************************

    2. The 1988 Sumgait massacre crystallized anti-Armenian hatred

    * 20 years ago the city on the Caspian was a killing field

    by Tatul Hakobyan

    [This is the third of a series on the 20th anniversary of the Karabakh
    Movement.]

    KAPAN, Armenia -- The 70-year history of the Soviet Union is full of
    bloody episodes, but what happened in Sumgait was unprecedented.
    Firstly, the massacres occurred in completely peaceful times.
    Secondly, the massacres were based on ethnicity not political
    loyalties. Thirdly, the central Soviet and republican authorities,
    though they did not implement the massacres themselves (as they had in
    Tbilisi in April 1989), by their lack of response, gave the
    opportunity to realize the massacres to the working class, which was,
    according to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's expectations, supposed
    to establish social order.

    As a result of the Armenian massacres in Sumgait during the last
    three days of February, at least 29 Armenians and six Azerbaijanis
    were killed; about 400 people were injured; and the 18,000-strong
    Armenian population of the city became refugees. The six Azerbaijanis
    were probably killed by Soviet naval officers when the armed forces
    attacked the young murderers gathered at the Sumgait bus station. This
    was on the evening of February 29, when the massacres of the Armenians
    was drawing to an end. Maybe this attack on the Azerbaijanis was
    carried out to give the massacres in Sumgait an inter-ethnic cast.

    The fact that the Azerbaijani slaughterers were armed with similar
    metal bars, that they had the addresses of the apartments of
    Armenians, and had been separated into special groups, speaks about
    the prior planning of the massacre. On the other hand, however, it is
    obvious that if other Azerbaijanis had not sheltered Armenians in
    their homes, the numbers of the murdered and injured would have been
    more. Only after the afternoon of February 29 did the Soviet army get
    the order to interfere and use weapons; rescuing thousands of
    intimidated Armenians from further massacre.

    In the spring of 1988 Samvel Shahmuradian recorded dozens of stories
    about the survivors of Sumgait. Some Azerbaijani authors insist that
    the Armenian massacres in Sumgait were realized by Azerbaijanis who
    had been exiled from Kapan. That Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia
    may have been among the groups of slaughterers cannot be excluded.
    However, the slaughterers did not use the word "Kapan" to justify the
    massacre; to be more precise, they used the word to incite violence.

    Constantine Pkhakadze, a Georgian who lived in Sumgait with his
    Armenian wife, has said that on February 21 an Azerbaijani friend had
    informed him that an anti-Armenian demonstration was to be expected
    within a week, but he had taken the information with a grain of salt.
    On the evening of February 26, Pkhakadze had seen a small number of
    people gathered in Lenin Square. One of them, not mentioning his name
    or surname, had recounted that he had run away with his compatriots
    from Kapan, where Armenians had killed both his and his wife's
    relatives.

    "We have run away from Kapan," said the Azerbaijani with the long
    face and thin mustache, who was the organizer of the rally. The next
    day other stories had been added; supposedly the Armenians had invaded
    the girls' dormitory in Kapan, raped the Azerbaijani girls and cut off
    their breasts. The Azerbaijani who claimed to be from Kapan concluded
    his words with "Armenians get out of Azerbaijani lands and death to
    the Armenians."

    On the afternoon of February 27, the second secretary of the Sumgait
    City Committee Bayramova appealed to the participants of the rally.
    "There is no need to kill the Armenians. Gorbachev has said that no
    one is seizing Karabakh. The territory has been and will remain
    Azerbaijani. Allow the Armenians to leave Azerbaijan peacefully. Give
    them a chance to leave," said Bayramova, concluding her speech.

    * What happened in Kapan

    According to some assertions in Azerbaijani sources the intercommunity
    clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis had begun prior to the
    February 1988 rallies. Historian Arif Yunusov persistently, but
    without any proof, insists that the exile and displacement of
    Azerbaijanis from Armenia had started in November 1987, and continued
    on January 25, 1988, and not 8 months after the massacres in Sumgait.
    Yunusov and other Azerbaijani and international authors, who repeat
    Yunosov word for word, have no quotes from even one of the thousands
    of Azerbaijanis supposedly exiled from Armenia before Sumgait.

    Jhora Mkrtchian was the Chief of the Kapan Train Station until 1992.
    However, he does not remember a single Azerbaijani displaced before
    Sumgait. "The Azerbaijanis only started moving after the massacres,
    when pandemonium broke out. They wrote requests and those who wanted a
    wagon, received a wagon, those who wanted containers, received
    containers; they loaded their cargo, bought tickets and left. They
    left on the Kapan-Baku train. Many left by car."

    The former second secretary of the Kapan Regional Committee Aramais
    Babayan says that in September 1987 news spread among local
    Azerbaijanis that a new city was being constructed in Azerbaijan and
    they were in need of laborers. "At that time a group of Azerbaijanis
    left Kapan. When they arrived there, they were told that a city was
    not being built. There were no possibilities of staying and some of
    them returned. None of them had left with their families", says
    Babayan.

    From 1987 to 1990 Grigor Harutyunyan was the president of the
    executive committee of the Regional Council of Meghri; the
    second-highest ranking official in the region. He insists that only
    after the incidents in Sumgait did the Azerbaijanis start moving from
    the regions with their families. Harutyunian notes that before and
    after the years 1980~V85, Azerbaijani youth left for Baku to receive an
    education and some of them did not return, just as some Armenians who
    came from the different regions of Azerbaijan to receive education in
    Yerevan stayed in Armenia. Harutyunian excludes the possibility of
    Azerbaijanis leaving with their families for Azerbaijan from the
    region of Meghri in 1987 without his knowledge.

    "After Sumgait some Azerbaijanis from Meghri and Kajaran left for
    neighboring Nakhijevan and the region of Zangelan out of fear, but
    returned. Some time later they started exchanging apartments. The
    process had already started; Azerbaijanis did not want to stay in
    Armenia and Armenians did not want to stay in Azerbaijan. Not a single
    Azerbaijani was injured in the region of Meghri," says Harutyunian.

    Not a single Azerbaijani was killed in Kapan and the region of
    Meghri from 1988 to 1991, when about 170,000 Azerbaijanis left
    Armenia. Of course Azerbaijanis had been killed; mainly in today's
    Lori marz, but not in Syunik.

    The first large rally took place in Kapan's city stadium on February
    22, 1988. Before then, small rallies had taken place in different
    squares; groups of students from the technical schools of construction
    and metallurgy, and medicine, had passed through the streets of the
    city. Many of the students of the colleges were from Nagorno-Karabakh
    and were calling, "Karabakh, unification!"

    "After the rally in the stadium, the Azerbaijanis became noticeably
    afraid. The next morning, on February 23, when we came to work, they
    called us from Baku to ask what our citizens were doing in the
    territory of Azerbaijan. As a result of the conversation it became
    clear that on the previous night 276 Azerbaijanis had left the city on
    the Kapan-Baku train. They were stopped half way, in the territory of
    Aghjabad and told to return to their homes, probably at Moscow's
    demand," says Babayan.

    The political authorities of the Kapan and Zangelan regions agree to
    meet on the border. Babayan remembers, "When we arrived, there was no
    one there. They told us that the people were waiting for us in
    Zangelan. They suggested that I sit in their car, as traveling in our
    car would be dangerous according to them, the youth of Razdara had
    gathered with guns, rocks and truncheons. I sat in their car and we
    arrived in Zangelan. When I asked where the people were, they answered
    that they had just dispersed. The only Azerbaijani from Kapan I met
    that day was the former master of the technical college. That day we
    were unable to return any Azerbaijanis to Kapan."

    The next day Babayan, the first secretary of the Regional Committee,
    Roland Ghonian, and other officials once again left for the border,
    taking buses with them. The authorities of the region of Zangelan had
    promised to bring the Azerbaijanis that had left Kapan to the border.
    "They had transported people by bus to the border, from where we
    brought them to Kapan with our three buses; two of them full and one,
    half full. The employees of the law enforcement bodies of the region
    of Zangelan also came with them. They got acquainted with the
    situation and were convinced that the information they had received
    was incorrect; not a single Azerbaijani had been injured in Kapan, no
    one had been beaten up and that it had all been provocation," says
    Babayan.

    The echoes of what had happened in Kapan quickly reached the
    Kremlin. The representative that had arrived from Moscow organized a
    reception for the Azerbaijanis. An official with the last name of
    Slobodnyuk from the Central Committee's inter-racial relations
    subdivision arrived in Kapan. During the consultation with the
    authorities of the region they invited and listened to the
    Azerbaijanis.

    Babayan gave us the list of the Azerbaijani passengers who had left
    Kapan and its surrounding villages on February 22 on the
    Baku-Kapan-Baku train (number 672-671). The list, which was compiled
    and presented to the authorities of the region of Kapan by the
    Azerbaijanis, included the names of 276 people. Babayan also gave us
    another list, where it was noted village by village how many
    Azerbaijanis had left the region of Kapan during the five days from
    February 24-29. According to that list, which may also include
    mistakes, the number of Azerbaijanis that left is 97. This number does
    not include the 276 that had left by train on the eve of February 22,
    some of which (about 100 people) had returned to Kapan on the 3 buses.

    * The victims of Askeran

    One of the eyewitnesses of Sumgait, Vladimir Grigorian told Samvel
    Shahmuradian, "I looked out of the window and there was a rally in
    Lenin Square. I could not hear anything so I opened the window. They
    were saying, calm down, we will not give Karabakh to the Armenians and
    Karabakh belongs to us. Another one said that Armenians had killed two
    Azerbaijanis in Karabakh; one 16 and the other 22 years old." His wife
    Marina added that the Azerbaijanis became more irate after hearing
    Katusev's words.

    On February 27, the Military Prosecutor of the USSR in Baku,
    Alexander Katusev announced on Azerbaijani television that two young
    people had been killed in Askeran two days ago, underscoring their
    Azerbaijani last names. This news further encouraged the Azerbaijanis,
    who were already prepared to kill the Armenians and steal their
    possessions.

    On the morning of February 22, 1988, a crowd of people from Aghdam
    moved towards Askeran. The motive behind the "peaceful attack" remains
    arguable. There are different versions, but the main one is that the
    Azerbaijanis were trying to scare the Armenians as a response to the
    rallies that had started in Nagorno-Karabakh and the calls of
    unification with Armenia.

    The attack of the Azerbaijanis was prevented near Askeran after
    short clashes. Dozens of people from both sides were injured, two
    Azerbaijanis were killed, one of them probably from a Karabakhi
    bullet.

    In the Avrora monthly magazine, Russian author Alexander Vasilevski,
    who had gone to Nagorno-Karabakh at the end of April 1988, casts
    suspicion on the allegations of the media of Azerbaijan and the
    central media. According to these allegations, as a result of the
    February 22 intercommunity clashes in Askeran, Armenians killed the
    two Azerbaijanis. Vasilevski met with Arif, the brother of Ali Hajiev,
    one of the deceased. The former told him that Ali had gotten into a
    fight with an Azerbaijani policeman, who shot and killed his brother.

    "Undoubtedly the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh had nothing to do
    with the death of at least one of them; 22-year-old Ali Hajiev, who
    worked on a lathe in the factory in Aghdam. Ali's brother, 29 year old
    engineer-constructor Arif Hajiev recounts, "An Azerbaijani policeman
    shot at Ali. The shot came from directly in front of him and the
    bullet went through his heart. My brother and the policeman had an
    argument. Then Ali fell into the arms of his close friend Ulvia
    Bahramova and said, "Hold me, I have been shot" and he fell down.
    Ulvia saw the face of the policeman who shot her. Ulvia does not
    recognize him, although she recognizes the other Aghdami officer, who
    immediately pulled the shooter into a car and drove off. Recently
    Lieutenant-Colonel Nikolayev of Moscow said that a new investigation
    has commenced. An announcement has been placed in the newspapers
    asking for witnesses to the killing to present themselves to the
    police station," writes Vasilevski.

    The other victim of the clashes; 16 year old Bakhtiar Uliev, was
    probably killed by an Askerani hunting rifle or by weapons of the
    employees of the Internal Forces.

    * Moscow's response

    On February 28, the Soviet news program Vremya qualified the Armenian
    massacres as "hooliganism." The next day Mr. Gorbachev presided over a
    session of the Politburo.

    Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov recommends introducing martial law in
    Sumgait, based on the scenes of atrocities taking place in the city.
    "The breasts of two women have been cut off, another's head and a
    young girl has been skinned. Behold this savagery."

    Grigor Kharchenko and Deputy Head of the USSR KGB Philip Bobkov were
    the first officials of the Kremlin to travel from Baku, arriving in
    Sumgait on February 28, where they saw the brutality with their own
    eyes. Kharchenko assesses Gorbachev's justification that the military
    forces arrived only three hours late as absolutely incorrect. They
    arrived one day late, as they had been waiting for the decision to be
    taken. He told British author Thomas De Waal, "It was impossible to
    control the situation because the whole town was in panic. Crowds of
    Azerbaijanis walking around, screaming came from the courtyards,
    'Help! Help!' We had an escort, we were led to one place~E I don't want
    to show you the photographs. I simply destroyed them. But with my own
    eyes I saw dismembered corpses, a body mutilated with an ax, legs,
    arms, practically no body left. They took the remains of dry leaves
    off the ground, scattered them over corpses, took petrol from the
    nearest car and set fire to them. Terrible corpses."

    According to Pkhakadze's evidence, on the evening of February 27,
    Jahangir Muslimzade, the leader of the Sumgait Communist Party
    replaced Bayramova in the square. The Azerbaijani who claimed to be
    from Kapan repeated his story about the brutality of the Armenians,
    saying that both his wife and her relatives had been killed and
    Azerbaijani girls had been raped in a dormitory. Then Muslimzade
    picked up the microphone and repeated Bayramova's words, "Brothers, we
    have to allow the Armenians to leave peacefully."

    On the eve of the same day, while the massacre of the Armenians
    continued, Muslimzade came to the front of the crowd, waved the
    Azerbaijani flag and headed the procession of protestors. He tried to
    direct the crowd towards the beach along Friendship Avenue. Later he
    justified his action by saying that he had tried to move the angry
    crowd away from the city centre toward the outskirts, in order to
    prevent further tragedy. While Muslimzade moved with the front rows of
    the crowd toward the beach, people in the back separated into groups
    and started to search for Armenians.

    Around 90 criminals stood before courts in different cities of the
    Soviet Union charged with implementing inter-racial massacre,
    violence, rape, and other charges in Sumgait. Only one of them
    received the maximum death sentence. The Soviet justice system does
    its utmost to avoid stressing and referring to the nationality of the
    criminals during the court cases. The insistence that some of the
    slaughterers were not Azerbaijani also serves that purpose.

    Spouses Mayor Arzoumanian and Larisa Zakharian, survivors from
    Sumgait initially settled in Spitak and then in Mughni. They were
    originally from the Arajadzor village of Martakert and started living
    in Sumgait in 1959, when the city was being constructed. However,
    tragedy struck the family much later. Their 28 year old daughter
    Marietta Petrossian died during the earthquake in Spitak, leaving
    behind sons, four-year old Michael and five-year old Arthur.
    Marietta's husband, Valery Petrossian who was also from Arajadzor and
    had left for Baku with thousands of Karabakhi-Armenians was killed in
    the Karabakh war. On October 12, 1992, he and 12 others were
    surrounded and killed in the village of Maghavuz in Martakert.

    ************************************** *************************************

    3. Washington Briefing

    by Emil Sanamyan

    * State Department, members of Congress offer congratulations over
    Armenia elections

    In a February 22 statement, the U.S. State Department "congratulated
    the people of Armenia on the active and competitive presidential
    elections on February 19." The statement took note of preliminary
    conclusions by Western observers that the election was conducted
    "mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and
    standards for democratic elections."

    It also noted remaining "significant problems with electoral
    procedures," praised the holding of recounts in a number of precincts,
    and urged the Armenian government to address shortcomings "to improve
    future elections."

    In reference to continuing opposition protests over the election,
    State Department spokesperson Tom Casey added in the February 25
    briefing that all election-related "disputes need to be settled within
    the confines of Armenia's constitution and political system."

    Unlike other world leaders, President George W. Bush has not yet
    sent a message to President-elect Serge Sargsian. Similarly, President
    Bush did not communicate with President Robert Kocharian on his
    re-election until after his inauguration on April 9, 2003.

    Reps. Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.) and Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.),
    co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues (which
    includes more than 150 House members) published a letter they sent to
    President-elect Sargsian congratulating him on his election. The
    February 26 letter also said the election "proved [Armenia's]
    commitment to free and fair elections" and offered to work with the
    next president "to help address the important issues facing Armenia."

    Mr. Sargsian also received congratulations from Armenian-American
    community leaders, including Kirk Kerkorian, Gerald Cafesjian, Berge
    Setrakian, Hirair Hovnanian, and the leadership of the Armenian
    Revolutionary Federation.

    * U.S. official: assistance to Armenia a "success story"

    The U.S. Director for Foreign Assistance and head of the U.S. Agency
    for International Development Henrietta Fore offered praise for the
    progress made in Armenia with the help of U.S. assistance during a
    congressional briefing this week.

    The Armenian Assembly of America reported that during a February 27
    hearing of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Ms. Fore was
    queried by Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) about the administration's
    proposed cut in aid to Armenia. As Secretary Condoleezza Rice before
    her (see this page in the February 16 Armenian Reporter), Ms. Fore
    appeared to justify the reduction in USAID-administered funding by
    pointing to expanding aid under the Millennium Challenge Account
    (MCA).

    Ms. Fore went on to say that the administration was "very pleased"
    about progress in Armenia and that "it is indeed a success story."

    "It troubles me that MCA funding continues to be used to explain the
    vast reduction in aid to Armenia," Rep. Knollenberg told the Assembly.
    "MCA funding for Armenia, which supports rural roads and irrigation
    infrastructure development, should not be used as a justification to
    cut [other] funding."

    * U.S. continues aid to Armenia's peacekeepers

    Armenia's Peacekeeping Battalion, elements of which are deployed in
    Kosovo and Iraq, received a new batch of U.S. communications equipment
    valued at $3 million, the U.S. Embassy in Armenia reported on February
    27. The previous consignment of communications gear arrived in August
    2007.

    The equipment includes field radios and supporting equipment
    purchased from the Harris Corporation in the U.S. The aid is intended
    to contribute to Armenia's inter-operability with Western-led forces
    in peacekeeping operations under the Individual Partnership Action
    Plan (IPAP) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This
    year, the U.S. is also expected to provide transport trucks, uniforms,
    field equipment and additional communications equipment to help expand
    the battalion into a brigade.

    * Azerbaijan to pull out of Kosovo, and to renew push for UN
    resolution on Karabakh

    Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev indicated that he will pull out a
    small Azerbaijani unit that has served with the NATO-led peacekeeping
    forces in Kosovo, Reuters reported on February 28. An Azerbaijani
    official said that the move came due to a "sharply changed political
    scene."

    At the same time, at the United Nations General Assembly, Azerbaijan
    introduced yet another resolution supporting its claim on
    Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has introduced similar resolutions in the
    past, but has not brought them to a vote on the insistence of France,
    Russia, and the United States -- the countries that are jointly
    involved in the Karabakh mediation effort.

    Both moves came following the recognition of Kosovo's unilateral
    independence by Western countries; in the words of Armenian Foreign
    Ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan, the moves reflect Azerbaijan's
    "panic" over the development. Mr. Balayan said that Armenia would
    continue to oppose the Azerbaijan-initiated United Nations resolution.

    Unlike its ally Turkey, which recognized Kosovo, Azerbaijan called
    Kosovo's independence "illegal." Russia has also opposed it.
    Meanwhile, Armenia's President Robert Kocharian said on February 29
    that the Kosovo precedent would play a positive role in the
    international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh's independence, Regnum
    news agency reported the same day.

    * Armenia, Georgia to launch military cooperation

    Armenian Defense Minister Mikhail Harutiunian's visit to Georgia this
    week is expected to mark the start of bilateral military cooperation
    between the two countries, Armenian and Georgian news agencies
    reported this week. Such cooperation has been absent even though the
    two neighbors have close economic ties, and are also cooperating
    through NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

    Between February 28 and March 1, Mr. Harutiunian met with the
    Georgian president and other leaders and visited with U.S.-trained
    Georgian Special Forces unit. As an initial steps toward cooperation,
    the two countries are due to appoint defense attaches at their
    respective embassies and establish a defense working group.

    * U.S. Russia watchers weigh in on Putin-Medvedev succession

    Washington-based Russia experts say the March 2 vote for the next
    Russian president should be viewed not as an "election," but rather a
    "succession," according to a discussion hosted by the Center for
    Strategic and International Studies on Feb. 28.

    On March 2, Russians are expected to vote in President Vladimir
    Putin's former aide Dmitry Medvedev as his successor; with Mr. Putin
    himself becoming Prime Minister.

    "The good news," said Andrew Kuchins, the CSIS Director for Russia
    and Eurasia, "is that we have heard no anti-Western rhetoric from Mr.
    Medvedev. The bad news is that he has said nothing about [foreign
    affairs] ~E This shows that Putin will take the lead role for some
    time," he said.

    Sarah Mendelson, director of the CSIS Human Rights and Security
    Initiative, agreed that Mr. Putin's potential role would see "Russia
    shifting towards the Prime Minister system, which means that Putin
    would [still] be the primary figure for some time to come." She added
    that Russia would "take advantage of declining U.S. influence."

    "We have seen that iPods, lattes, and skateboards, and other
    elements of Western culture do not, alas, translate into a desire for
    free media and [democracy]," she said.

    Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for
    International Economics, cited Russia's significant economic growth
    over the past eight years, and said that this growth would most likely
    continue -- a factor that he says contributes to the country's
    corruption.

    "Countries that are as rich and educated are normally democratic.
    Russia is an extreme outlier," he said, calling Mr. Putin's
    administration "about the most corrupt regime we have ever seen."

    * * *

    ~WAlexa Millinger contributed to this briefing.

    *************************************** ************************************

    4. Knollenberg, Pallone send letter to Rice asking for public rebuke
    of Azerbaijani president

    WASHINGTON -- Representatives Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) and Frank
    Pallone, Jr. (D.-N.J.), co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on
    Armenian Issues, along with over 50 of their colleagues sent a letter
    to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking for a public rebuke
    of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev for his recent threatening
    comments regarding war with Armenia.

    "It has been 20 years since the liberation movement in
    Nagorno-Karabakh and still today the president of Azerbaijan is
    threatening war over this territory. Azerbaijan can no longer spew
    hatred and war threats towards Armenia without a public international
    response." Knollenberg and Pallone said.

    "Enough is enough. It is time for the U.S. Department of State to
    hold Aliyev and his government accountable for their words. Armenia is
    an ally and friend to the United States and threatening to go to war
    with an ally is never acceptable."

    "A peaceful resolution to this conflict can and must be achieved.
    Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh agree that peaceful negotiations are the
    way forward. It is now time for President Aliyev to rescind his
    vicious statements and come to the negotiating table."

    The letter was cosigned by Gary Ackerman (D.-N.Y.), Gus Bilirakis
    (R.-Fla.), Dennis Cardoza (D.-Calif.), Jim Costa (D.-Calif.), Jerry
    Costello (D.-Ill.), Joseph Crowley (D.-N.Y.), Danny K. Davis
    (D.-Ill.), Lloyd Doggett (D.-Tex.), Anna Eshoo (D.-Calif.), Chaka
    Fattah (D.-Pa.), Barney Frank (D.-Mass.), Elton Gallegy (R.-Calif.),
    Scott Garrett (R.-N.J.), Charles Gonzalez (D.-Tex.), Raul Grijalva
    (D.-Ariz.), Maurice Hinchey (D.-N.Y.), Michael Honda (D.-Calif.), Rush
    Holt (D.-N.J.), Patrick Kennedy (D.-R.I.), Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.), James
    Langevin (D.-R.I.), Sander Levin (D.-Mich.), Daniel Lipinski
    (D.-Ill.), Frank LoBiondo (R.-N.J.), Stephen Lynch (D.-Mass.), Carolyn
    Maloney (D.-N.Y.), Edward Markey (D.-Mass.), Betty McCollum
    (D.-Minn.), Thaddeus McCotter (R.-Mich.), James McGovern (D.-Mass.),
    Howard McKeon (R.-Calif.), Michael McNulty (D.-N.Y.), Candice Miller
    (R.-Mich.), Grace Napolitano (D.-Calif.), Colin Peterson (D.-Minn.),
    George Radanovich (R.-Calif.), Mike Rogers (R.-Mich.), Steven Rothman
    (D.-N.J.), Bobby Rush (D.-Ill.), Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.), John Sarbanes
    (D.-Md.), Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.), Chris Shays (R.-Conn.), Brad
    Sherman (D.-Calif.), Mark Souder (R.-Ind.), Chris Van Hollen (D.-Md.),
    Tim Walz (D.-Minn.), Diane Watson (D.-Calif.), Anthony Weiner
    (D.-N.Y.), Albert Wynn (D.-Md.)

    USAPAC has urged Armenian-Americans to call these representatives
    and thank them for cosigning the letter. They can be reached at (202)
    224-3121.

    ********************************* ******************************************

    5. Trial continues in the murder of Hrant Dink

    by Talin Suciyan

    YEREVAN -- The fourth hearing in the trial of 19 men for the murder of
    Hrant Dink took place on February 25 in Istanbul. Of the 19
    defendents, eight are detailed and some are members of the GUP (Buyuk
    Birlik Partisi/Great Unity Party), which is known for its
    ultranationalist ideas. The court decided that four GUP members whose
    questioning process is already done do not have to attend the
    hearings.

    It was reported that tension was high throughout the day in the
    courtroom, since the lawyer for the accused Fuat Turgut and the
    suspects continued their insults. Turgut reportedly said "My client is
    not like the rabid Armenians who committed the Khojalu massacres."

    He further said, "Attorneys know much better what a terror
    organization means." Turgut, continuously referred to the late Hrant
    Dink as a "proven enemy of the Turk." Upon this, Delal Dink, Hrant
    Dink's daughter said, "This very expression killed my father even when
    he was alive." Further, murder suspect O.S. [Ogun Samast] reportedly
    cursed Dink family lawyer Kezban Hatemi.

    The court rejected a request to further investigate the murder
    suspect's age. Thus, O.S. is deemed as underage at the time of
    committing the crime. Hence, the hearings continue to be kept closed
    to the public.

    After the hearing which lasted nine hours, Fethiye Çetin, one of the
    lawyer's of the Dink family, stated that their demands have not been
    met. The cases regarding the officers in Trabzon and Samsun, who are
    to be tried for dereliction of duty and allegedly knew the murder plan
    beforehand, will be held separately. "We do think that these cases
    should have been joined. Renouncing our requests causes to keep the
    whole entity of the criminal organization covered," said Ms. Cetin.

    Zafer Üskül, MP of the ruling Justice and Development Party and head
    of the Special Commission formed within the Turkish Parliament on
    Hrant Dink's murder case, stated that the gendarme officer whose
    conduct was unethical in the second hearing of the case, was penalized
    under the military rule and was sent to another city.

    Until today, seven of the suspects have been questioned. Coskun
    Igci, a gendarme informant, who said he reported the plan of murder
    four months before it took place, is yet to be questioned. Two people,
    who were in the room of deputy governor of Istanbul "warned" Hrant
    Dink, after publishing the news item on the Armenian origins of
    Ataturk's daughter Sabiha Gökçen, remained unknown. The fifth hearing
    will be held in April.

    ****************************************** *********************************

    6. Nagorno-Karabakh insists on directly participating in the negotiations.

    by Armen Hakobyan

    YEREVAN -- During a visit to Armenia, on February 26, the
    chairman-in-office of the OSCE, the foreign minister of Finland, Ilka
    Kanerva, met with the president of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
    (NKR), Bako Sahakian, at the Golden Tulip Hotel.

    "This was our first meeting and was more of an opportunity to become
    acquainted, but we also tried to discuss issues of a practical nature
    with the chairman-in-office of the OSCE. We talked about the
    negotiation process, the implementation of the cease fire monitoring
    process by the OSCE permanent representative on the line of contact;
    we came up with a series of suggestions and, as a first meeting, I
    consider it productive," said Mr. Sahakian.

    For his part Mr. Kanerva noted that the OSCE is not only interested
    in the speedy settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but also in
    supporting the promotion of democratic processes throughout the
    Southern Caucasus. As far as the primary issue is concerned, he said,
    "When the situation surrounding the presidential elections becomes
    history in Armenia, I think that in terms of the settlement of the
    Nagorno-Karabakh conflict we will have a stronger basis for growing
    optimism."

    He also noted contentedly, "Recently I met with the political
    authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh and I must note with satisfaction that
    they support the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through
    peaceful negotiations."

    Unlike Armenia and Artsakh, the Azerbaijani side is constantly
    making hostile statements. One of the journalists asked Mr. Kanerva
    for his reaction to that fact. "It is understandable that prior to
    reaching a settlement, during political arguments, severe expressions
    and severe words are used from time to time," said Mr. Kanerva. In
    answer to another question, he emphasized that to date he had not been
    presented with convincing facts that the OSCE Minsk group has
    exhausted itself. "In my opinion the Minsk group has an added
    investment in this process. It instills trust and also guarantees
    reaching positive results. Leaving one ship and boarding another
    without knowing the consequences would be risky. On the other had, it
    is understandable that meetings and exchanges between the presidents
    are very important and necessary and that we expect results from those
    meetings," he said.

    Following this, Mr. Kanerva had a meeting with the accredited
    ambassadors to the Republic of Armenia of OSCE member-states. The
    press conference continued without his participation. Referring to the
    substance of their recently concluded meeting, Mr. Sahakian said, "We
    talked about the negotiation process with the chairman-in-office of
    the OSCE. As always we have proved our steadfastness in supporting the
    settlement of the issue by exclusively peaceful means. At the same
    time we asked the chairman-in-office of the OSCE to use his authority
    and resources to restore the decision of the OSCE Budapest summit so
    that the NKR continues participating in the negotiation process as an
    active side." Later Mr. Sahakian added, "Today the reaching of a
    logical conclusion to the negotiation process is being impeding mainly
    by the fact that NKR is not participating in the negotiations. But at
    the same time we have mentioned that it is in our interest that
    Armenia continues its participation in the process, as that
    participation is securing today's peace."

    As for the precedent set by Kosovo, Mr. Sahakian noted that they
    would be happy if Kosovo's independence would promote the recognition
    of NKR by the international community. He said that in Artsakh they
    are closely monitoring the course of Kosovo's independence and
    recognition and they are analyzing it and drawing conclusions.

    * Bako Sahakian notices manifestations of artificially created tension

    The post-election period in Armenia was also touched upon during the
    press conference. It was unavoidable especially since while supporters
    of Levon Ter-Petrosian were continuing their rally in Freedom Square,
    Serge Sargsian's supporters were in Republic Square for a victory
    rally. The press conference was being held at the Golden Tulip Hotel,
    which is located midway between the squares. It was enough to stand in
    front of the hotel to clearly hear the chants of "Levon! Levon!"
    coming from the Opera as well as the slogan "Forward Armenia" from
    Republic Square.

    During one of his rallies, Mr. Ter-Petrossian praised Mr. Sahakian
    for the fact that the president of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the
    country's authorities, had not been involved in the presidential
    elections of Armenia and its developments. "That is the truth, because
    the people of NKR and its authorities have not interfered in the
    presidential elections of Armenia," said Mr. Sahakian adding, "During
    that same meeting he compared me with the former president and then,
    condemning the former president of NKR, Levon Ter-Petrossian said that
    in 2003 he interfered in the presidential elections of Armenia. In
    2003, I was the director of the National Security Service of NKR and I
    am well aware of the way events developed at that time. The former
    president of NKR, Arkadi Ghukasian, had not interfered, but had
    expressed his willingness to participate in easing the tensions in the
    situation."

    Mr. Sahakian also called attention to the fact that only one day
    after Mr. Ter-Petrossian's announcement, the latter's supporter,
    former prime minister of Armenia Hrant Bagratian, also spoke and
    called on the authorities of NKR, the president of NKR, the president
    of the National Assembly, the prime minister, and head of the Artsakh
    diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev
    Martirossian, to join them. "I think comments are superfluous in this
    case. The contradictions are there and I would ask you to come to your
    own conclusions," Mr. Sahakian said.

    Bako Sahakian gave his evaluation of those developments. "The
    elections in Armenia have concluded. I have congratulated the newly
    elected president of Armenia on behalf of the people of Artsakh and
    myself. I am sure that under the guidance of the newly elected
    president, Armenia will register considerable development. We had the
    opportunity to fight in the battlefield under Serge Sargsian. We are
    well aware of his organizational skills. We know his civil character,
    and we respect him. We are convinced that Armenia will register
    significant progress under his leadership; the Armed Forces will
    become stronger; the security of the country will be reinforced and it
    is natural that the stronger Armenia becomes, the stronger the
    President of NKR will be."

    About Robert Kocharian he said, "Regardless of what the current
    president of Armenia will be occupied with [later], he will go down in
    history as a leader who guided his people along a victorious path.
    This is how the people of Artsakh consider the current president."

    The leader of Artsakh also mentioned that he is acquainted with the
    section concerning Karabakh in Levon Ter-Petrossian's program and his
    stance on that issue is negative.

    To the question of whether Azerbaijan is taking advantage of the
    situation created in Armenia, the president of NKR replied, "In the
    situation created, we notice manifestations of artificially created
    tension and we condemn this stance, as all this is taking place at a
    time when the Armenian soldier is on military duty. And naturally this
    behavior cannot benefit the security of our countries. We have
    interests in the stabilization of the situation in the shortest
    possible time as it is no secret that the main accomplishment of our
    two countries over these years has been the stability achieved. And
    that stability has found its firm place in the life in Armenia, which
    we welcome."

    ********************************** *****************************************

    7. Post-election week is exhilarating and frustrating

    by Betty Panossian-Ter Sarkissian

    YEREVAN -- The post-election week in Yerevan featured massive rallies
    organized by the opposition and the authorities alike, choking the two
    main squares of downtown Yerevan. Meanwhile, for inhabitants going
    about their business in the central core of the city, it was difficult
    to avoid the rallies.

    The streets adjacent to Freedom Square, where Levon Ter-Petrossian's
    supporters had been camping for ten days, were even more crowded by
    pedestrians mostly grouped on the sidewalks. However, the nearby
    shops, cafés, and restaurants were unusually empty for a busy midday.
    There were many police cars parked by the square.

    "I can only say that the atmosphere around here is very stressful.
    And this much tension cannot be positive, anyway," said 23-year-old
    Ella Yaputyan, a student at the Interlingual University. Of the many
    passers-by I approached, she was one of the few who dared to speak to
    a reporter holding out a tape recorder.

    "I do not expect anything good to come out of all this," said Ella.
    On February 19, she had hesitated all day to go to the polling
    station. By the time the polling stations closed their doors, she had
    not yet made up her mind. "I don't know why. Perhaps because none of
    the candidates was to my liking," she said.

    Yet Ella had taken part in the rally in Freedom Square -- mostly out
    of curiosity. "Those people worship Levon," she noted.

    Ashot Hayrapetyan, 37, a construction worker, has participated in
    the Liberty Square rallies several times "for the improvement of our
    state." He said he believed that the candidate he has voted for will
    eventually come to power. On the other hand, Avag Ghazaryan, 35, a
    minibus driver who had taken part in the rallies three times, was not
    hopeful. "I am sure that it is all useless. All I see is vain
    speeches. Justice will not come to our country." Avag added that what
    he wanted is for people's votes not to be ignored. "I cannot say that
    the new president has been elected by the people," he said.

    19-year-old medical student Anahit Papayan had voted for the first
    time on February 19. "I am content with our post-election situation. I
    hope that they have used my vote as I intended it," she said. However,
    in the first few days following the presidential elections, she had
    been very careful and decided to avoid the streets of downtown
    Yerevan, even if that meant skipping a few classes. "Now we have
    become sort of accustomed to this situation. I am no longer afraid of
    the rallies," she said.

    "I cannot say that these elections were fair and just. Then again I
    do not believe in the opposition leader," said Dr. Martirossyan, 52,
    who refused to give her complete name. However, one thing she
    considered highly positive in post-election Yerevan, was the civic
    awareness of the people, the fact that they expressed what they
    wanted, even if that meant going up against the government.

    "I perceive this as a reawakening." she said.

    ******************************************* ********************************

    8. After the presidential elections in Armenia

    * A chronology of events

    * February 19

    Election Day

    * * *

    * February 20

    11:00 A.M. The Central Electoral Commission issues preliminary results
    of presidential elections.

    With 70% voter turnout, as of 10:00 A.M. the CEC has tabulated
    1,632,139 votes or 97.8 percent of the votes cast. The preliminary
    results show Serge Sargsian with a considerable lead at 52% and Levon
    Ter-Petrossian in second place with 21.5%.

    * * *

    CIS Observation Mission calls the elections "free and open."

    * * *

    2:00 P.M. Artur Baghdasarian's campaign announces that it is
    requesting a recount at over 200 polling stations. "We declare that we
    are starting a process of reconsideration of the election results and
    we demand to recognize invalid the results of voting in more than 100
    polling stations, holding a second vote count in over 200 polling
    stations, which will considerably increase the votes of our candidate,
    which, in its turn, will have considerable influence on the final
    results of the elections,"the statement read.

    * * *

    3:00 P.M. Levon Ter-Petrossian and his supporters numbering in the
    tens of thousands hold a rally at the Matenadaran. From the
    Matenadaran the protesters walks through the streets of downtown
    Yerevan, stopping at the CEC and then finally ending up in Freedom
    Square, shutting the city down. Mr. Ter-Petrossian tells his
    supporters to come back the next day dressed warmly.

    * * *

    4:00 P.M. The International Election Observation Mission states in its
    preliminary report that the presidential election in Armenia was
    "mostly in line" with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and
    standards. In 16 percent of the polling stations the counting process
    was deemed "bad" or "very bad."

    * February 21

    3:00 P.M. Ter-Petrossian rally gets under way at Freedom Square. Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian's people announce that they will stay in the square
    indefinitely. Mr. Ter-Petrossian claims that two deputy defense
    ministers, General Manvel Grigoryan and General Gagik Melkonyan
    "support the people's movement."

    * * *

    Heghine Bisharian, Mr. Baghdasarian's campaign manager comes to the
    rally and reads the statement issued the day before. She declines to
    join the protest.

    * * *

    A tent city is erected for the sit-in. Protesters celebrate early into
    the morning.

    * February 22

    Deputy Prosecutor General Gagik Jhangirian joins Mr. Ter-Petrossian.
    Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan applies to the president to
    dismiss him from his post for violating the ban on political activity
    by prosecutors.

    * * *

    Four members of the Republican Party of Armenia and three from
    Prosperous Armenia allegedly join Ter-Petrossian. (Most later deny
    it.)

    * * *

    Raffi Hovannisian of the Heritage Party joins Mr. Ter-Petrossian at his rally.

    * * *

    Vahan Hovhanessian, ARF presidential candidate, announces his
    resignation from the position of deputy speaker of the National
    Assembly.

    * * *

    President Robert Kocharian flies to Moscow to participate in informal
    meetings of the CIS countries.

    * February 23

    Sit-in continues.

    * * *

    Aram Karapetyan, leader of the New Times Party, which is supporting
    Mr. Ter-Petrossian, is arrested on charges of making false
    accusations.

    * * *

    Vardan Jhangiryan, brother of Gagik Jhangiryan, Karen Hovhanesyan and
    Leova Poghosyan are arrested after a scuffle with police in which
    Vardan Jhangirian was slightly injured. The charges are possession of
    illegal weapons and resisting arrest.

    * February 24

    Sit-in continues.

    * * *

    Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Baibourtian, Rouben Shugarian, Armenia's
    ambassador to Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Levon Khachatryan, Armenia's
    ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and Razmik Khumaryan of
    Armenia's Embassy in Ukraine and Moldova signed a statement calling
    Mr. Ter-Petrossian "the newly elected legitimate president of Armenia"
    who can handle Armenia's foreign policy challenges. The president
    promptly relieved them of their positions and stripped them their
    diplomatic rank.

    * * *

    Recounts end. New numbers are posted by the CEC; the outcome remains the same.

    * * *

    The CEC certifies the final results of the presidential elections. The
    CEC members appointed by the Country of Laws and Heritage Parties are
    not present and do not sign the protocol. The ARF appointee signs the
    protocol with reservations. The others all sign.

    * * *

    Vladimir Karapetian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
    and seven others resign from the ministry and join Mr. Ter-Petrossian.

    * * *

    Smbat Ayvazian, former taxation chief and member of the radical
    opposition Republic Party (Hanrapetutyun), is arrested.

    * February 25

    Sit-in continues.

    * * *

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian calls for students to boycott their classes and
    join the movement. Says that Freedom Square is the best education they
    can hope for.

    * * *

    ARF announces a proposal to leave the government.

    * * *

    Petros Makeyan of ANM splinter Democratic Homeland Party is arrested
    and charged with violations on Election Day in Gyumri.

    * * *

    Slovakia's foreign minister Jan Kubis, chairman of the Council of
    Europe, calls the Feb. 19 vote "another positive step towards the
    country's democratic development."

    * February 26

    Sit-in continues.

    * * *

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian submits letter of intent to Constitutional Court to
    nullify results of presidential elections.

    * * *

    Mr. Sargsian holds a victory rally at Republic Square. Tens of
    thousands participate.

    * * *

    Suren Surenyants of Republic Party arrested for organizing
    unauthorized rallies and marches.

    Garnik Margarian, former senior police official, arrested.

    Samvel Harutiunian, former mayor of Goris, released after questioning.

    Vachik Simonian, Ter-Petrossian election campaign chief in Yeghvard, detained.

    * * *

    Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian regrets that some diplomats chose to
    make their personal sentiments public, in violation of their duties.
    He notes that Ter-Petrossian appointees were kept and promoted in the
    ministry over the last 10 years, and asserts that there will be no
    witch hunt in the ministry.

    * * *

    Asked in a TV interview about Mr. Ter-Petrossian's declaration that he
    would leave Freedom Square only to move into the presidential palace,
    Mr. Kocharian says he could offer the former president a job in the
    mail room.

    * February 27

    Sit-in continues.

    * February 28

    Sit-in continues.

    * * *

    Vahan Hovhanessian issues a statement proposing topics for reconciliation talks.

    * * *

    The National Security Service of Armenia arrests six people, including
    the 72-year-old brother and 61- year-old brother-in-law of Vano
    Siradeghyan. Mr. Siradeghyan was the Interior Minister during Levon
    Ter-Petrossian's presidency and is wanted on criminal charges for
    politically motivated murders.

    * February 29

    Mr. Baghdasarian agrees to enter the governing coalition.

    * * *

    "The longer they try to keep the people in the Theater Square, the
    greater the disappointment of those people will be," Mr. Kocharian
    says, urging Mr. Ter-Petrossian to send people home.

    * * *

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian files his application with the Constitutional Court.

    ****************************************** *********************************

    9. Will the "Old Friend" become the new opposition?

    by Armen Hakobyan

    YEREVAN -- The Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Vahan Hovhanesian,
    who according to Central Electoral Commission count, received 6.2
    percent of the total votes cast in Armenia's presidential election,
    declared that he was resigning from his post of deputy speaker of the
    National Assembly.

    On February 25, the party's Supreme Body in Armenia proposed to
    withdraw from an agreement on cooperation with the governing
    Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)~VProsperous Armenia (PA) coalition.
    The party holds three ministerial portfolios as well as leadership
    posts in the National Assembly.

    "We could and should have come out of the elections more united and
    stronger," the Supreme Body declared, referring to Armenia. "That did
    not happen for a number of reasons; mutual enmity and hatred,
    intolerance and threats prevailed during the campaign. Society was
    artificially divided and polarized. On the one hand there was the zeal
    of the has-beens to bring about regime change at all costs; on the
    other, the desire of today's rulers to maintain their positions at all
    costs."

    There were also violations on Election Day, the party stated. "The
    supporters of the leading candidates engaged in universal, open and
    secret bribery; there were cases of violence and ballot-stuffing in
    some precints; and there were violations in the count as well." This
    has led to social tension.

    Nonetheless, the ARF Supreme Body "does not dispute the final
    results of the elections and wishes success to the newly elected
    president, Serge Sargsian."

    In the interests of maintaining stability and seeing progress, the
    body proposed (a) to conduct an unbiased and comprehensive analysis of
    all evidence of voting fraud and punish the culprits; (b) to condemn
    any intention to change the regime by force and, also, to use force
    against those who are unsatisfied with the results; (c) to take urgent
    steps toward strengthening the international prestige of Armenia, and
    easing domestic tension; (d) to develop an electoral system that will
    exclude bribes, the participation of nonpolitical, semi-criminal
    elements, and use of administrative resources in all election
    processes; (e) to ensure true pluralism and freedom of speech in the
    republic.

    "We urge both parties to refrain from steps that could strain the
    situation even more. We urge one side not to try to implement any
    program of changing power in the country by force and we urge the
    other side to respect the views of those who indeed have grounds and
    can be discontent with the results of the elections, and not to label
    them as outsiders, not to create hostility," said Supreme Body
    representative Armen Rustamian at a February 26 press conference.

    Mr. Rustamian said the party's proposal to pull out of government
    puts the ball in the governing coalition's court.

    Asked by the Armenian Reporter whether the ARF, with its 16 seats in
    the 131-member National Assembly, would become "a high-quality,
    ideological opposition," Mr. Hovhannesian said, "No ideological,
    political debate took place, which indicates that the opposition that
    has taken to the streets cannot -- maybe it can but doesn't want to
    -- take the role of a civilized opposition. I am proud of those one
    hundred thousand people who voted for me, because on the one hand,
    they do not dance drunken in the squares, they are not that kind. On
    the other hand, they do not take funeral wreaths to the house of one
    of the candidates and make hysterical comments there," he said,
    referring to a demonstration outside Mr. Ter-Petrossian's house. I
    really like my voters; they all are decent people.

    "Now, it will be very hard to start everything form nothing, because
    you have to again create a model that is not recognized in society
    today. . . . In such conditions, yes, we will try to create a
    civilized opposition model, but how it will work I cannot say. I think
    we will need many years until this model becomes effective in our
    society."

    In the Supreme Body's announcement, the ARF had offered to take on
    the role of mediator between the government and Mr. Ter-Petrossian's
    camp. How did it see that happening when Mr. Ter-Petrossian and the
    administration are pursuing completely different goals? "First of all,
    they have to be little bit more tolerant toward each other," Mr.
    Hovhannesian said, adding: "We need to understand one thing: are the
    demands extremist because the negotiation always starts from a
    maximalist position, or is this really beyond the red line, and no
    concessions are possible? If no concessions are possible, then no
    mediation will succeed, obviously. But nevertheless, I think that
    there are areas on which agreement is possible. On the one hand, the
    authorities should admit that it is in large part responsible for
    violations in the last few elections. On the other hand, the
    opposition in the streets today should confess that many of those in
    their ranks today are the authors and designers of these violations.
    For example, Gagik Jhangirian," he said referring to the deputy
    prosecutor general who defected to Mr. Ter-Petrossian's camp last week
    and was dismissed from his position. "Gagik Jhangirian was the
    engineer of electoral fraud in Armenia, while some days ago he was
    making declarations about the violations and clamoring for justice. In
    such conditions one understands that both approaches are polarized."

    Mr. Hovhanessian concluded: "The authorities have to ask themselves:
    What have we done that so many people decided to join Levon
    Ter-Petrossian? They have done something, haven't they? They must
    confess in order to ease the tension and change the attitude of the
    opposite side. The opposite side must also confess. On the other hand,
    Levon Ter-Petrossian and those that surround him are the main authors
    of this travesty, against which they are fighting today in the
    streets."

    ****************************** *********************************************

    10. Bringing travel business to Armenia

    * Levon Travel celebrates its 15th anniversary in Yerevan

    by Betty Panossian-Ter Sargssian

    YEREVAN -- Fifteen years ago Levon Travel, an American travel agency
    based in Glendale, California, opened its branch office in Yerevan.
    This initiative became a driving force behind the development of
    travel and tourism business and regulations in Armenia.

    Levon Travel was founded back in the 1960s in Beirut by Levon
    Berberian. After his death in Beirut, his son, Khachig Berberian, his
    daughter, Lori Titizian, and her husband, Garbis Titizian moved the
    business to Los Angeles. The agency has been prospering for nearly
    five decades now.

    September 2007 marked the 15th anniversary of the Levon Travel
    Yerevan branch office, the 10th anniversaries of the Tbilisi and
    Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakh) branch offices, as well as the 25th
    anniversary of the head office in Glendale.

    * One of the very first

    In the beginning of the 1990s Levon Travel was one of the very first
    diasporan-Armenian institutions to open an office in the then-newly
    independent Republic of Armenia.

    Garbis Titizian, the president of Levon Travel, had been frequently
    visiting Armenia even before independence, right after the earthquake
    in 1988.

    "I was lucky to be in Yerevan during Armenia's pre-independence
    period," says Garbis Titizian to the Armenian Reporter via e-mail.

    It was in the chaos of those days that he was drawn closer to the
    people and the country. "I got to know the people of Armenia, their
    needs, their shortcomings, and in general, the lifestyle of the
    society," says Mr. Titizian.

    Geographically landlocked Armenia was isolated at that time from the
    rest of the world by the still dominating Soviet traditions in every
    aspect of communication, transport, and international relations on one
    hand and by the political and economic blockade on the other.

    "Transportation to the outside world was a major problem Armenia was
    facing right after its independence," says Mr. Titizian. He adds that
    it was essential to establish air contact with the United States,
    where a large number of the Armenian diaspora looked for ways to
    assist the homeland.

    During the Soviet period all air travel to and from Armenia was
    carried through Moscow and Aeroflot, the Soviet airline. Although
    right after its independence Armenia had its very own national
    airline, Armenian Airlines, the latter carried out most of its flights
    within the boundaries of the former Soviet Union.

    With their experience in the air travel business, Garbis Titizian
    and Levon Travel had direct input in the foundation of travel and
    tourism business in Yerevan. They brought the first-ever travel agency
    to the capital.

    "I volunteered my services to the government of Armenia and, like
    many other diasporan-Armenians during this period, acted as an adviser
    to the Prime Minister on aviation issues," says Mr. Titizian. He adds
    that a lot of the rules applying to foreign companies doing business
    in Armenia today date back to those years when Levon Travel came to
    the country. "The steps we took at every stage became a blueprint and
    paved the way for other foreign companies," says Mr. Titizian.

    In the meantime Armenian Airlines started to flourish, although
    still carrying on the regulations and the work ethic inherited from
    the Soviet period. However, soon there was some competition. Within
    few years, Levon Travel became the official representative of British
    Airways in Yerevan, the first major foreign airline carrying out
    regular flights to Armenia.

    Anahit Papazian, the managing director of the Yerevan branch office,
    says that after Armenia got its independence, everyone in the country
    thought that soon investments will flow in. "But even the
    diasporan-Armenians were very cautious. Garbis Titizian was one of the
    very first to invest in the business sector in Armenia. He is someone
    not afraid of taking risks," says Ms. Papazian.

    The functioning of Levon Travel in Yerevan was quite a novelty in
    town. Travel agencies were a completely new field in Armenia. When
    first started, Levon Travel was the only source for getting tickets on
    air carriers other than Aeroflot.

    * Difficult, early days

    In the "dark and cold years," Levon Travel operated from a room in the
    Ani Plaza Hotel on Sayat Nova Street, in central Yerevan. "Electricity
    and heating was a major problem, especially in the winter," recalls
    Mr. Titizian.

    In time, Levon Travel moved to new premises on Sayat Nova, across
    from the hotel.

    Finding trained personnel was a challenge. The lack of travel
    agencies in Armenia also meant the lack of experienced staff. However,
    Mr. Titizian was firm on forming his staff by Armenians residing in
    Armenia. He says that to this day it consists of local residents only.
    "I believe strongly in encouraging local talent and making sure that
    the business contributes both to Armenia's travel and tourism
    industry," says Mr. Titizian.

    While opening a new business in Armenia, Garbis Titizian focused on
    training the personnel, later to become the core managing group of
    Levon Travel's offices in Yerevan. "He has invested his time and
    energy to guide us through the world of travel agency," says Ms.
    Papazian.

    Mr. Titizian says that the main criteria of his staff always has
    focused on good working habits, excellent customer relations, honesty,
    and a willingness to learn and advance in the travel field. "All of my
    staff has received appropriate training either in the airline or
    tourism industry," says Mr. Titizian.

    "One of the most memorable events from those days was acting as a
    personal courier for the U.S. Mission in Armenia," says Mr. Titizian.
    "In the early days before the U.S. Embassy was officially opened in
    Armenia, I was proud to assist Tom Price, the U.S. chargé d'affaires
    at the time, in a number of flights from Yerevan to Sofia to deliver
    pouches. No official courier existed at the time. I am proud to have a
    certificate of appreciation I received from the State Department in
    1993 for assisting in the establishment of the U.S. Embassy in
    Yerevan."

    During Levon Travel's first years in Yerevan, Mr. Titizian spent the
    majority of his time in Armenia. "It was a difficult decision but a
    necessary one. Personal attention and service are crucial to the
    success of any new business," says Mr. Titizian.

    Presently Mr. Titizian visits Yerevan almost every 3 months "to make
    sure we continue to be a leading agency in Yerevan," he says.

    Fifteen years of doing business in Armenia means getting through
    difficulties related to business laws and regulations. However, Mr.
    Titizian thinks all in all it has been a rewarding experience.

    "I feel I contributed in a small way to my country's advancement in
    the modern business world," he says.

    Fifteen years later Levon Travel still encounters many challenges,
    not the least of which is competition. Now in almost every street in
    the center of Yerevan there are new travel agencies.

    "It is hard to stay always at the top," says Mr. Titizian. "When we
    first opened our offices there were no other travel agencies in the
    capital. Today, there are small shops selling travel tickets or
    offering tours in every corner. Although I am not sure you can qualify
    them as agencies."

    * International tourists, come to Armenia!

    At the beginning Levon Travel focused more on selling air tickets and
    providing air travel services. "In the beginning this was the priority
    and there was no infrastructure for tourism yet," says Mr. Titizian.

    In the following years, as Armenia underwent a new wave of
    construction and the service sector was considerably improved, Levon
    Travel was encouraged to expand its activities into tourism.

    In 1997 Levon Travel started organizing incoming tours to Armenia,
    managed by Davit Khachiyan. Together with Levon Travel Mr. Khachiyan
    became one of the pioneers to take organized incoming tours in Armenia
    to new levels.

    Although lacking work experience in the tourism business, Mr.
    Khachiyan was armed with his rich personal experiences as a frequent
    traveler to European and ex-USSR countries. Soon the tourism
    department in Levon Travel began promoting Armenia as a new hot spot
    for tourism not only for the diasporan-Armenians, but also for
    non-Armenians.

    At the beginning, the tours targeted diasporan Armenians. However
    within a decade they have embraced growing numbers of tourists from
    North America, European countries, as well as Japan, New Zealand, and
    other countries from around the globe. "We do everything possible to
    attract non-Armenian tourists to Armenia. It is essential that we
    witness a growth in non-Armenians exploring Armenia," says Ms.
    Papazian.

    Mr. Khachiyan says that according to the figures of 2006, only 40
    percent of the tourists participated in tours organized by Levon
    Travel to Armenia were Armenians. "The other 60 percent were
    non-Armenians, 20 percent of which were Italian tourists. Next come
    Germans, English, French, Japanese, Russians, and Netherlanders," said
    Mr. Khachiyan.

    Through coordinating the staff in its Glendale, Yerevan,
    Stepanakert, and Tbilisi offices, Levon Travel plans group tours and
    independent travel itineraries. The agency has developed dozens of
    custom packages of various durations of travel in Armenia,
    Nagorno-Karabakh, and Georgia.

    In addition to the tours, Levon Travel provides full travel
    services. It assists travelers in obtaining air-tickets, visas and
    insurance, airport transfers, hotel accommodation, guides, and
    interpreters' assistance.

    Mr. Khachiyan says that one of the major objectives of Levon Travel
    is to promote Armenia. "The Yerevan, Los Angeles, Stepanakert, and
    Tbilisi offices of our agency coordinate the promotion of Armenia and
    the development of tourist projects. Our agency encourages national
    policies and enterprises taken by the government of Armenia. The
    overall development and progress of Armenia is very important for our
    business to prosper and flourish," says Mr. Khachiyan.

    Besides propping up Armenia on the Internet, Levon Travel also takes
    part in international travel and tourism exhibitions in Berlin, Milan,
    and Tokyo.

    Levon Travel is a founding member of the Union of Incoming Tour
    Operators in Armenia, an Armenian nongovernmental organization, and
    one of the few focusing on incoming tourism. The organization unites
    the most efficient tour operators in Armenia, and raises issues and
    problems related to tourism in Armenia to the decision making bodies.

    The agency has witnessed the growth of tourism in Armenia. "The
    progress on both quantitative and qualitative levels is obvious," says
    Mr. Khachiyan. "Ten years ago we only thought of the market of
    diasporan-Armenian tourists. Now we are witnessing an important growth
    in the number and national diversity of non-Armenian tourists. I think
    we should focus on the latter aspect of tourism in Armenia, because
    the market of the diasporan-Armenian tourists is very limited compared
    to the market of the world tourists."

    For the coming years Levon Travel aims to further expand its
    activities in tourism. "We will be promoting tourism to Armenia,
    Georgia and Artsakh within the United States," says Mr. Titizian.
    "There is great interest by non-Armenians to discover Armenia's
    ancient treasures."

    ******************************** *******************************************

    11. Commentary: Neither side must come out as losers

    * Presidential elections in Armenia tend to cause rather than solve
    conflicts, Hrair Tovmasian argues

    Interview by Maria Titizan

    YEREVAN -- During elections in most democratic nations, candidates can
    represent a broad political spectrum: liberal, conservative, right
    wing, left wing, etc. The conclusion of the election, however, means
    that there is a winner at the end of the day. In most democracies, the
    losers congratulate the winners, they shake hands, appear to present a
    spirit of solidarity and the institutional mechanisms, like components
    of a well-oiled machine, continue to chug along.

    However, what happens when those elections are called into question
    -- when there are charges of election fraud, bribery, coercion, and
    ballot stuffing? What happens when a country has an officially elected
    president, receiving congratulations from world leaders and another
    self-proclaimed president who has taken over one of the symbols of the
    capital city, the Opera Square claiming he has won 65 percent of the
    vote?

    Hrair Tovmasian, author of Armenia's first electoral code and a
    co-author of Armenia's constition, believes the current impasse
    Armenia finds itself in has its roots in history. What we are living
    and experiencing is the consequence of certain phenomena. Why have the
    people taken to the streets? Why are they alleging that the elections
    were rigged? Why does the broadcast media primarily do the bidding of
    those in power? These issues are not new, they were born many years
    ago.

    When humankind, or at least the civilized world, embarked on a
    journey to establish democratic, legal, and social statehood, drafting
    constitutions which declared that the rights of humans, including
    dignity, constituted the most important value, the Armenian nation had
    lost its statehood and was floundering.

    According to Mr. Tovmasian, after the loss of the kingdom of
    Cilicia, Armenians began developing national features which were
    symptoms of their existence. Those features included a willingness to
    adapt, indifference, passivity, the idea that the authorities are
    always right, the notion that "nothing depends on me." It was at this
    time that Armenian proverbs, still being passed on today were written:
    Ur hats, and gats (Where there's bread, stay there) and Yete yeghung
    unes, klught kereh (If you have a nail, scratch your head).

    The first Armenian republic, 1918~V20, for many reasons -- war,
    refugees, famine, sickness -- was not able to lay firm foundations for
    a civilized, democratic, and legal state, Mr. Tovmasian said. The
    second republic with its Soviet experience, viewed the legal state as
    bourgeois sentimentality. Today, the third Armenian republic is having
    to deal with the consequences of this national historical experience.
    The concept of statehood is one which we have not been able to grasp
    and appreciate.

    In examining democratic elections globally there are three
    fundamental issues which they address: (a) resolution of political
    conflicts, (b) the formation and evolution of a political elite, (c)
    the legitimacy of the authorities. In Armenia however, these issues
    are not addressed.

    The first issue of democratic elections is conflict resolution. In
    the civilized world, after each election the different candidates,
    having different political positions or conflicts, accept defeat and
    extend a hand to the winner. They each had a platform with which they
    went to the electors. The electors decide the winner. In Mr.
    Tovmasian's opinion, in Armenia, political conflicts are not resolved
    during elections; on the contrary they create political conflicts. "If
    we look at the presidential elections of 1996, 2003, and 2008, we see
    that they became the cause for the creation of new conflicts," he
    says.

    The formation of a political elite in this country has not come to
    be and the governing group after each presidential election loses some
    of its legitimacy. "We saw this process take place in previous
    presidential elections. Today the people are back on the streets.
    Obviously this presidential election did not solve the issue of
    legitimacy, it only contributed to people's loss of faith in the
    authorities."

    Elections in Armenia have not been able to address or resolve
    political conflicts, have not helped in the formation of a political
    elite nor have they contributed to the legitimacy of the authorities.
    In order to have democratic elections, there are three preconditions.
    "We need to have in place a well-formulated electoral code, a well
    developed sociopolitical and legal culture, and political will of the
    authorities to hold democratic elections," Mr. Tovmasian says.

    According to Mr. Tovmasian, designing an electoral code is similar
    to designing a computer program. Any program is susceptible to
    viruses, regardless of how well the program is designed and protected.
    In Armenia, the viruses are more resilient than the program. "I
    remember one time during an interview on television, I joked that I
    could write a book on a thousand ways to rig an election. The next day
    I received over a hundred calls from people requesting that book. Some
    even asked that I supply only them with that book. When I told them
    that this book doesn't exist, they wanted me to order one for them.
    This just shows the willingness of certain elements to sabotage the
    process."

    * The culture of democratic elections doesn't exist in Armenia

    In Armenia the culture of democratic elections and their role is
    nonexistent. "We have not seen all the positive things that democratic
    elections can bring," says Mr. Tovmasian. "That person who tries to
    steal 100 drams from our pocket, we deem a thief, robber, a dreg of
    society. But those who commit fraud during the elections, who pass out
    bribes, who take bribes, we don't see them as criminals or thieves --
    we consider them sharp, nimble, artful, but they are not criminals.
    What does this mean? It means that stealing the 100 dram is a
    transgression or a crime committed against us, yet the other, election
    fraud, we don't appreciate as a crime. We don't see it as a crime
    against us, our pride of citizenship, our participation in the
    elections, our state."

    People should not expect their life to change for the better when
    they take a bribe. "Taking a bribe is like taking pain relievers --
    they might temporarily take the pain away, but the main sickness
    remains; it's only a band aid measure. The Armenian who takes the
    bribe, believes that his problem will be eased, is fooling himself,
    there is no healing," says Mr. Tovmasian.

    One of the prerequisites to holding democratic elections is
    political will expressed by the authorities. A state is created to
    safeguard the rights of its citizens; but in Armenia people are in
    search of mechanisms to protect them from the state. If the political
    will to hold democratic elections in Armenia is lacking, the reason is
    that being in power is the shortest and quickest way to get rich.
    "Secondly, being in power is the only way to protect your accumulated
    wealth. Why? If you do not have institutionalized guarantees such as
    an independent justice system, a civil society, the only way to
    protect what you have accumulated is to come to power," says Mr.
    Tovmasian. "Therefore to expect in Armenia for authorities to have the
    political will is infantile because that would mean first of all they
    could not reap the benefits of the redistribution of the country's
    wealth, and that they could not protect their accumulated wealth,
    therefore they neither want nor need political will to conduct
    democratic elections if it means they will lose. As long as these
    reasons exist, this situation will continue to perpetuate itself."

    For Mr. Tovmasian, the "authority of the square" (referring to Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian) is not a solution. There has to be a systematic,
    consistent awareness campaign that needs to be realized, where every
    citizen is empowered, and knows his or her rights. You cannot expect
    to do that 20 days before an election.

    * Protecting property rights by coming to power

    "Why don't rich Americans generally want to get into Congress? Because
    they don't need it; they don't need to be there to (a) make money or
    (b) protect their accumulated wealth. The high price of elections
    diminishes, when the loss of power in government doesn't mean losing
    everything, when we have a developed civil society and people can make
    the right decisions."

    According to Mr. Tovmasian, the U.S. has had great presidents --
    Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, who through their own persons have
    created American history. Washington, through his own principles and
    person laid the foundations for what the United States is today. "But
    the U.S. has also had weak presidents like Johnson who admitted to
    those closest to him that he had only read two or three books. Truman
    -- who had said that there are several million Americans who would do
    a better job at the presidency than him. Eisenhower -- who in his
    political speeches said that he knew nothing about politics -- he was
    a military man. But during each of their presidencies America
    continued to grow and develop and served as a beacon of hope and
    democracy for the whole world." Mr. Tovmasian explains that it
    continued because the political structure in the U.S. and other
    developed democratic nations is not dependent upon individuals; it is
    dependent upon institutions such as an independent judiciary,
    federalism, decentralized governance, civil society. "If we, in
    Armenia, are not able to institutionalize these values, then come the
    next election, we'll have different people rally in Freedom Square,
    with the same slogans, the same accusations."

    Mr. Tovmasian believes that the intelligentsia have the greatest
    role to play, "They have to rise above all this and say something,
    suggest solutions -- instead of receiving medals, they should have
    something to say."

    His greatest concern is that if there are serious clashes today in
    Armenia, there is no one who can rise up and lead people toward calm,
    toward a resolution, starting from the Catholicos and ending with the
    last intellectual. "God forbid that this situation not find its
    resolution through legal and political means -- otherwise that would
    mean clashes, civil war, the victory of one over the other. Today, it
    is crucial that both sides come out of this in victory," Mr. Tovmasian
    entreats.

    The more aware citizens are, the more they know their rights and are
    not willing to "adapt," the more the authorities will have to be
    careful with what they do. People have been asking themselves how it
    is that Levon Ter-Petrossian was able to get so many people to vote
    for him. Mr. Tovmasian said that he told the authorities, "It's
    because of you. If any citizen has had to deal with the Customs
    Department, or the Tax Department or City Hall, the courts, that
    person will no longer vote for you. It's not enough for you to raise
    their pensions; you need to give them an honorable life. The Armenian
    citizen wants to be able to go to court and believe that it's
    independent; he wants to be able to go to any state authority and not
    be kept waiting ten hours outside their doors. If the citizen doesn't
    see this, then he will vote for the authorities. It's not good enough
    for you to say that you placed street lamps. The most important right
    for any citizen is their dignity. Dignity can be lost even on the most
    illuminated street."

    Why did Levon Ter-Petrossian garner so many votes? According to most
    experts, Mr. Ter-Petrossian was tactically right on the money. In
    order for him to gain an upper hand he had to polarize the race, he
    had to go toward conflict, show power. "People oftentimes like to go
    with those who are powerful," said Mr. Tovmasian. This is where he
    sees the difference between parliamentary elections and presidential
    elections.

    During parliamentary elections people will vote for the party, or
    leader they find an affinity with or whose platform they support. In
    presidential elections they bet their money on the fastest horse who's
    going to cross the finish line first. Levon Ter-Petrossian was able to
    show that he has the ability to win. "In my opinion, the votes for
    Vazgen Manukian and Vahan Hovhannesian were in reality much more, but
    their electorate began to believe that they would not be able to win
    therefore decided to go with Levon Ter-Petrossian. They said, 'Yes,
    he's smart, honest, but doesn't have any chances,' and that's why they
    placed their bet on the former president. People don't want to be with
    the loser," Mr. Tovmasian explains.

    While it is very apparent that those citizens gathered in Freedom
    Square day after day are extremely dissatisfied and want to change the
    present authorities, the question remains: do they know where they
    will end up with Levon Ter-Petrossian? The authorities very
    unsuccessful at attempting to show people what would happen of Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian came to power. One of the candidates constantly showed
    images from the dark and cold years as part of his media campaign
    against the former president. "Those dark and cold years were the most
    enlightened years of my life. I was going to school, I got married, we
    were creating a new state and we were victorious in Karabakh," says
    Mr. Tovmassian.

    He explains that the authorities are now blaming Levon
    Ter-Petrossian for creating this political structure, whereas in 1995
    they adopted a constitution whose fruits he is enjoying today. "They
    are waging a campaign against him with the very weapons he gave to the
    authorities. He did not become DeGaulle, he did not become Lincoln or
    Peter the Great -- he laid crooked, distorted foundations of this
    state where personal allegiances were paramount, where getting rich
    through the authorities was the shortest way, where criticizing and
    shutting down the media was the norm, where murders were politically
    motivated. The foundations for all of these circumstances were placed
    during the Ter-Petrossian regime and not to talk about them is not
    possible. However what is he saying today? He's saying I'll come to
    power and everything will be great. I have heard nothing else from
    him. When I see who is standing beside Levon Ter-Petrossian in the
    square, when I hear him announce that this general or that general has
    come over to his side, when I see the team with which he plans to
    govern, I understand that nothing will change in this country."

    In this expert's opinion the country desperately needs a third force
    who can mediate and in the end show the right path to go down
    together. Whether that could be a democratic grouping, or an
    individual, people should not place personal ambitions above the
    greater good. "Why Raffi Hovannisian joined Levon Ter-Petrossian I
    will not understand. I myself do not have an explanation for that. Why
    didn't other forces unite? Quantity could have brought qualitative
    change. People then would have had an alternative. It has to do with a
    lack of a healthy political culture and the existence of personal
    ambitions. Politics is the art of the possible. If you have the
    ability, then you can make change. If you can't make change then you
    are not a good politician."

    What would happen if Mr. Ter-Petrossian's movement succeeds in
    having the Constitutional Court deem the elections null and void? That
    would mean victory for the one side, for Levon Ter-Petrossian. "I am
    happy when I see that people believe in their movement -- it gives me
    pleasure when I see that young person in Freedom Square protesting,
    and really believing in something, although I might not share his
    beliefs -- I don't think we should destroy that belief. But we should
    also be wary of having the authorities lose. There has to be solutions
    or ways in which both sides can come out of this stalemate victorious,
    or in the least, not as losers. We need to have people who can act as
    mediators and bring the two sides to the table."

    Mr. Tovmasian believes that Serge Sargsian's effort to reach out at
    his victory rally signifies a positive turn of events. One day after
    the elections or even a few days ago, no one would have believed that
    one side could suggest such a thing. "I welcome his position -- Artur
    Baghdasarian and Vahan Hovhannesian have suggested becoming mediators.
    Political analysts are also getting more involved. It seems that
    people are searching for a way to come out of the situation without
    any bloodshed. Whereas 10 days ago any suggestion of some kind of
    reconciliation or compromise was considered to be a fable --
    unrealizable -- today it has turned into a story which might be
    realized. I haven't lost hope that there is a solution or a way out of
    this."

    ********************************** *****************************************

    12. "We cannot allow a schism in society," Oskanian says

    * Cites "negative effects" on diplomacy

    YEREVAN -- What effect can increasing post-election tensions have on
    the resolution of the Karabakh conflict? The Armenian Reporter posed
    this question to Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian during a February 25
    conversation with journalists. Mr. Oskanian said the effect can be
    very negative. "I can understand rallies until the announcement of the
    final results. I consider them to be expressions of democracy, in some
    sense. Those 6~V7 days of the recounts, people protest that their
    candidate was not elected. It is true, these rallies had an extremist
    nature, but, in any case, I consider that they are tolerable, they are
    an expression of democracy.

    "But now that the final results have been announced, and nothing has
    changed, if they continue, that means people intend to change
    something by force. That is already something else. I think the
    response to this must be different. There is the constitutional route;
    they can apply to the Constitutional Court. This might in some way be
    positive for democracy so far; but from here on in, it will start to
    have a negative effect. I hope that everyone will realize this and
    they will bring a very quick end to these rallies, they'll take the
    legal route, and also the route of ending this intolerance. We are
    going to live together in this small country and cannot allow a schism
    in society.

    "You cannot imagine what negative effects this can have. Azerbaijan
    has started taking advantage of the situation; in a diplomatic sense,
    they have seen a window; it seems to them our administration is torn,
    our society is torn, and they will be able to implement certain plans
    that they have long tried and failed to implement.

    "I think we should come together very quickly, become a strong fist
    again, so that we can face all challenges.

    "Most importantly, it would be a shame to lose the positive image
    that Armenia has today in international Until now we haven't lost it;
    we have received positive evaluations from the international
    community, after the parliamentary elections. It would be very bad.
    Until now we haven't lost it; we have received positive evaluations
    from the international community. I even consider these rallies an
    expression of democracy. But if we are able to evaluate the situation
    correctly, end all of this, and shake each others hands. Maybe I am
    overly hopeful. Maybe that won't happen, but we must start a process
    of c`oming together. We have a new president, who will take over on
    April 9, and we must be able to move forward without schisms."

    In response to another question, Mr. Oskanian said, "In this
    election, it wasn't ideas but people who clashed. The past and the
    present, hatred, intolerance, the geography of our very small country,
    and this is really very painful."

    ~WArmen Hakobyan

    **************************************** ***********************************

    13. Living in Armenia: The three presidents of modern-day Armenia

    by Maria Titizian

    Armenia is probably the only country in the world who can boast that
    it has three presidents. Three. That's right. There's the incumbent,
    Robert Kocharian, there's President-elect Serge Sargsian, and then
    there's the self-proclaimed president of Freedom Square, Levon
    Ter-Petrossian.

    For all intents and purposes, at least according to the Central
    Electoral Commission of Armenia, Serge Sargsian is the president-elect
    of this tiny, landlocked country that has sold off most of its energy,
    communication networks, and infrastructure to Russia. Then there's
    also the small issue of the unresolved status of Nagorno-Karabakh, the
    imposed blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan and the continuing war
    mongering by Ilham Aliev and his cronies. Since independence a million
    people have left the country. They left behind their homes, their
    families, their lives. A young, energetic and highly qualified
    generation is struggling to find its mission in this fledgling
    democracy.

    Then there's the reality that's unfolding in Opera Square. Tens of
    thousands of disgruntled citizens, tired of the ruling classes, tired
    of living in a dual reality, have decided to support the former
    president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrossian. The tents have increased,
    the names of those who are defecting and going over to Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian's camp is also increasing, though the newer names are
    not prominent ones. Every day they march through the streets of
    Yerevan. Flags and fists in the air. Young and old.

    This is the second presidential election I have witnessed in
    Armenia, not to mention two sets of parliamentary elections, a
    referendum on constitutional amendments and a couple of local
    elections. In the 2003 presidential election, incumbent Robert
    Kocharian was unable to cross the 50 percent threshold in the first
    round, thereby forcing a second round. I remember very clearly the
    impending sense of doom some of us were experiencing at the thought of
    his rival, Stepan Demirchian becoming president, especially after the
    now infamous debate he had with Robert Kocharian. I was in
    self-imposed exile, unwilling to face the possibility of a weak,
    inexperienced president. I think it was the only time I floundered
    about our decision to move to Armenia. I remember thinking that I
    would rather have stayed in Canada and kept the idea of an independent
    Armenia on a pedestal, idolizing it rather than living in this mess.
    Mess is not the word I was using at the time. In retrospect I was over
    reacting. Today's impasse is one which is far more dangerous to the
    stability and future of this country.

    The international observer mission gave what can be interpreted as a
    positive report on the conduct of the election; the CIS observer
    mission called them free and fair. The OSCE/ODIHR mission said their
    responsiblity was not on the outcome of the elections, but the
    process. Many of us present at the press conference of the
    international observer mission were stunned into silence, knowing the
    depth of violations that had occurred. While I appreciate that the
    process tried to adhere to the principles of a democratic election,
    the reality was something else. While I also appreciate that Armenian
    statehood is in its infancy and am willing to accept much more is
    unfair, I would have at least liked to have seen a veiled attempt at
    something that had more integrity.

    The one glaring shortcoming of this election campaign was media
    coverage. It was very clear that the authorities through pressure and
    manipulation were able to censor the airwaves. An independent media
    can be as important as an independent judiciary, especially in a newly
    formed democracy. In their attempt to discredit Levon Ter-Petrossian,
    the authorities embarked on a smear campaign against the former
    president. The little coverage they did give managed to capture
    less-than-appealing images of the candidate and attempted to portray
    his supporters as a bumbling, misguided collectivity. In fairness,
    they did want to interview him, and he constantly refused everyone,
    including our own paper. The media coverage of the post-election
    period was worse than the campaign itself. While Levon Ter-Petrossian
    managed to create a movement, bringing together tens of thousands of
    supporters, erecting a tent city, and a 24-hour sit in, the media
    consistently refused to cover it. They mentioned it briefly in
    passing, but most of us who were desperate to find out what was
    happening had to physically go to his rallies or hear it through the
    BBC or Euronews.

    Last Saturday morning at home I was switching between channels
    trying to find out what had happened the night before. We were on a
    constant state of alert, fearing that the authorities would try to
    disperse the crowds under the pretext of public order, thus causing
    clashes. Internet connection from my house is shoddy; just trying to
    get connected is a test of nerves -- yes, I still have dial-up and our
    phone lines are not digitized -- therefore I couldn't read online wire
    services. I called my girlfriend and we both decided to go to the
    rally ourselves. It was a sunny day, with the feeling of spring in the
    air. Just as we got to Liberty Square, Nikol Pashinian,
    Ter-Petrossian's supporter and organizer of the rallies, was speaking.
    My friend and I walked arm in arm through the crowd, looked at the
    tents that had been used as sleeping quarters for those who had stayed
    overnight. Everyone was quietly and attentively listening to what
    Pashinian was saying while eating sunflower seeds or smoking. We tried
    to get close to the podium but it was packed. After walking around the
    Opera and once again through the crowd we decided to go and sit at a
    cafe on the grounds of the Opera building. While drinking our coffee,
    we were watching people coming and going. Some carried flags, with
    their fists in the air; others it seemed were out for a stroll; and a
    lot of people like ourselves were there out of curiosity to try and
    understand what was going on. We were in a media blackout after all.

    While drinking my coffee I saw a tall woman walking along the path
    leading to the rally. She was wearing a long, light brown coat with a
    matching fedora. She had short, snow white hair and carried herself
    with grace and poise. What caught my attention was a scarf she was
    wearing over her coat. It was the scarf that belonged to one of the
    other presidential campaigns. I thought my eyes would fall out of
    their sockets. I couldn't believe that this woman, about my mother's
    age, would take the risk of sporting an opponent's campaign
    paraphernalia on her person and walk into a crowd of thousands and
    thousands of people there to support Levon Ter-Petrossian.

    Hers was a quiet, courageous act, a stance, a position which she
    dared to say silently, without pointing fingers, or yelling
    profanities or spreading lies. This one woman had something to say and
    she said it with as much dignity as I have ever seen in my life.

    Everyone in this country could learn something from this woman. I
    just wish they would stop to look and listen.

    ***************************************** **********************************

    14. Editorial: Democracy in Armenia

    The weeks leading to Armenia's February 19 presidential elections were
    a time of passionate debate and engagement in the homeland. Citizens
    of Armenia saw nine candidates articulate their positions on national
    television, on the radio, in print media, online, and in gatherings in
    every corner of the country.

    Some candidates spoke about their vision for the future. Among those
    were Prime Minister Serge Sargsian, former speaker Artur Baghdasarian,
    and the ARF's Vahan Hovhannesian. Others engaged in fierce criticism:
    former president Levon Ter-Petrossian attacked President Robert
    Kocharian and Mr. Sargsian; candidate Artashes Geghamian and others
    went after Mr. Ter-Petrossian.

    Most people we spoke to in Armenia in the early phase of the
    election contest expected Mr. Sargsian to obtain a plurality of the
    vote, after which he would face the second-place candidate -- likely
    Mr. Ter-Petrossian, Mr. Baghdasarian, or Mr. Hovhannesian -- in a
    second round.

    As Election Day came closer, Mr. Ter-Petrossian's support among
    opposition voters began visibly to increase: more people showed up for
    his rallies; the Heritage Party endorsed him; and polls showed him in
    second place. Meanwhile, our interviews with voters indicated that the
    prospect of a second Ter-Petrossian presidency increased the support
    enjoyed by Mr. Sargsian. Undecided voters -- and voters who were
    leaning toward candidates who were unlikely to win -- tilted toward
    Mr. Sargsian, who represented stability and a predictable foreign
    policy and was not Mr. Ter-Petrossian.

    Turnout was high on Election Day. After the polls, reports from the
    precincts began to trickle in. It began to emerge that Mr. Sargsian
    had won outright, with 53 percent of the vote.

    Did the outcome reflect the will of the electorate? All eyes were
    now on the Western observers. They noted problems, but they found that
    Armenia's elections were an improvement over the May 2007
    parliamentary elections, which were, in turn, an improvement over past
    elections. In sum, they were "mostly" in line with Western standards.

    The various camps listened to the reports coming in from their
    people in the field: electoral commission members, proxies, and
    organizers. Mr. Baghdasarian's campaign decided to demand a recount in
    certain precincts, where they had information about problems. Mr.
    Hovhannesian's team decided to accept the results, while calling for
    certain improvements in the process for the future.

    But Mr. Ter-Petrossian declined to concede his defeat at the polls.
    He called on supporters to gather in Freedom Square and stay there
    until he was inaugurated as president. Tens of thousands of Armenians
    have joined him in his round-the-clock rally.

    * * *

    In the face of uncertainty about what might happen next, the mood in
    the country in the 10 days that have elapsed since the election has
    been grim.

    Except, perhaps, in Freedom Square. One cannot help but be moved by
    the sight of people from every walk of life gathered, making their
    demands peacefully but resolutely. The last few nights have been cold
    in Yerevan, and hundreds of people are spending them dancing on
    Freedom Square.

    In mobilizing this mass of people -- in evoking their idealism and
    in raising their hopes -- Mr. Ter-Petrossian has taken on a heavy
    responsibility. Will he be able to deliver what his supporters hope
    for: a more democratic Armenia with a more level playing field?

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian has tapped into a rich vein of popular discontent
    and raw anger. With his encouragement, this anger is expressed in
    unworthy terms: dividing the Armenian people into "us" and "scum";
    "the people" and "traitors"; "Armenians" and "the Karabakh clan." This
    is troubling, to say the least.

    The central premise of Mr. Ter-Petrossian's campaign is that he was
    actually elected president by 60 to 65 percent of the electorate, with
    Mr. Sargsian in fourth place. By making the goal of the campaign the
    elevation of Mr. Ter-Petrossian to an office to which he was not
    elected, Mr. Ter-Petrossian makes it difficult for other forces to
    join the campaign, and for a compromise, win-win solution to emerge.

    In fact, it has had the opposite effect. On Friday, Mr. Baghdasarian
    agreed to bring his Country of Laws Party into a coalition with Mr.
    Sargsian's Republican Party and the Prosperous Armenia Party.
    Meanwhile, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which has indicated
    a desire to quit its power-sharing agreement with the Republican and
    Prosperous Armenia coalition, has been reluctant to do so outright,
    lest it be perceived as part of Mr. Ter-Petrossian's camp.

    The net effect, so far, has been to leave Armenia's National
    Assembly with a smaller opposition than it has had for the last nine
    months.

    * * *

    The initial tactic of the post-election campaign was to encourage mass
    defections from the machinery of government. In the first few days a
    handful of senior civil servants and diplomats joined the
    Ter-Petrossian camp. Mr. Ter-Petrossian expressed confidence that the
    commanders of the armed forces and the police will join him too. To
    ask civil servants, diplomats, and above all people in uniform to
    violate the laws on political neutrality and engage in mutiny is not a
    route open to responsible leaders -- especially in a country that
    faces hostile neighbors to the east and west. Fortunately, that tactic
    failed.

    To their credit, Mr. Ter-Petrossian and his followers have
    studiously avoided violence. And to his credit, Mr. Kocharian has
    resisted any temptation he may have had to use force against peaceful
    protestors.

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian has applied to the Constitutional Court to order
    new elections. At press time, we had not seen the evidence of fraud
    offered to support the application. In view of the conclusions of the
    observers and the other camps, however, it appears unlikely that
    evidence of massive fraud exists and that the application can succeed.

    Where will this all end? We can hope that it will not end with the
    complete marginalization of the 350,000-odd voters who supported Mr.
    Ter-Petrossian. On their behalf, and on Armenia's, he must start to
    tone down the divisive rhetoric and look toward constructive steps
    toward political reconciliation.

    Steps that would address the concerns of the protesters -- and could
    be taken with or without Mr. Ter-Petrossian -- include further
    electoral reforms, the appointment of a strong and independent figure
    as Armenia's new prosecutor general, and reforms in the way broadcast
    media are regulated and public television and radio are managed.

    Meanwhile, there are avenues for a mobilized and responsible
    opposition to take from here on in. Later this year, Yerevan will hold
    municipal elections. Part of democratic political culture, as
    President Kocharian recently noted, is accepting defeat at the polls;
    and, we would add, moving on to the next electoral contest with new
    ideas and renewed energy.

    ***************************************** **********************************

    Please send your news to [email protected] and your letters to
    [email protected]

    (c) 2008 Armenian Reporter LLC. All Rights Reserved

    --Boundary_(ID_8UdV6Q+H4SQW09n8XYpawA)--
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