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WOUNDED ARMENIAN CANDIDATE WILL NOT DELAY PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
By Hasmik Lazarian
YEREVAN | Tue Feb 5, 2013 1:25pm GMT
(Reuters) - An Armenian presidential candidate who was shot last
week will not seek a postponement to this month's election to avoid
the risk of further instability in the former Soviet republic, his
lawyer and other backers said on Tuesday.
Paruyr Hayrikyan, an outsider in the race in which President Serzh
Sarksyan is widely expected to win a new five-year term, was shot in
the shoulder on January 31 near his home in Yerevan.
He could have asked the Constitutional Court for a two-week
postponement of the February 18 vote, which would have raised the
prospect of instability in republic in the volatile South Caucasus
region that carries oil and natural gas to Europe.
Hayrikyan did not want to let that happen, a spokesman said.
"The goal of the attack was to kill Hayrikyan and organise a new
elections. Taking that into consideration, we want to make sure they do
not attain their goal," Karo Yeghnukyan, a spokesman for the candidate,
told a news conference.
Stability is vital to the nation of 2.3 million to woo investors and
boost an economy struggling with regional isolation and the effects
of a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan in the 1990s.
Violence flared after Sarksyan's election in 2008, leaving 10 people
dead when police clashed with supporters of former president and
opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan who protested for days on
the streets of the capital.
The government imposed a state of emergency during the unrest in the
landlocked nation that borders Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran and Georgia.
Hayrikyan's lawyer, Levon Baghdasaryan, confirmed that he would let
the election go ahead as planned despite difficulties in continuing
his campaign.
"Regardless of the fact that as a result of the assassination attempt
insurmountable hurdles have arisen, Hayrikyan will not appeal to the
Constitutional Court with a demand to postpone the day of presidential
election," he said.
Doctors have removed the bullet and said Hayrikyan's life was not
in danger, but he remained in hospital on Tuesday. Police have not
named any suspects.
Hayrikyan, a pro-Western former Soviet dissident, said hours after
the shooting that he suspected a foreign secret service and suggested
he was referring to Russia, which is Armenia's main ally and has a
military base on its territory.
Its relations with Azerbaijan have been severely strained since a war
over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that is controlled by
ethnic Armenians, which killed some 30,000 people before a cease-fire
in 1994.
Relations with Turkey have also been fraught after Ankara closed its
border with Armenia in 1993 in support of ethnic kin in Azerbaijan.
Armenia wants Turkey to recognise mass killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks in 1915 as genocide.
Hayrikyan, 63, leads a moderate opposition party, the National
Self-determination Union and ran for president in 2003.
(Writing by Thomas Grove; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Hasmik Lazarian
YEREVAN | Tue Feb 5, 2013 1:25pm GMT
(Reuters) - An Armenian presidential candidate who was shot last
week will not seek a postponement to this month's election to avoid
the risk of further instability in the former Soviet republic, his
lawyer and other backers said on Tuesday.
Paruyr Hayrikyan, an outsider in the race in which President Serzh
Sarksyan is widely expected to win a new five-year term, was shot in
the shoulder on January 31 near his home in Yerevan.
He could have asked the Constitutional Court for a two-week
postponement of the February 18 vote, which would have raised the
prospect of instability in republic in the volatile South Caucasus
region that carries oil and natural gas to Europe.
Hayrikyan did not want to let that happen, a spokesman said.
"The goal of the attack was to kill Hayrikyan and organise a new
elections. Taking that into consideration, we want to make sure they do
not attain their goal," Karo Yeghnukyan, a spokesman for the candidate,
told a news conference.
Stability is vital to the nation of 2.3 million to woo investors and
boost an economy struggling with regional isolation and the effects
of a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan in the 1990s.
Violence flared after Sarksyan's election in 2008, leaving 10 people
dead when police clashed with supporters of former president and
opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan who protested for days on
the streets of the capital.
The government imposed a state of emergency during the unrest in the
landlocked nation that borders Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran and Georgia.
Hayrikyan's lawyer, Levon Baghdasaryan, confirmed that he would let
the election go ahead as planned despite difficulties in continuing
his campaign.
"Regardless of the fact that as a result of the assassination attempt
insurmountable hurdles have arisen, Hayrikyan will not appeal to the
Constitutional Court with a demand to postpone the day of presidential
election," he said.
Doctors have removed the bullet and said Hayrikyan's life was not
in danger, but he remained in hospital on Tuesday. Police have not
named any suspects.
Hayrikyan, a pro-Western former Soviet dissident, said hours after
the shooting that he suspected a foreign secret service and suggested
he was referring to Russia, which is Armenia's main ally and has a
military base on its territory.
Its relations with Azerbaijan have been severely strained since a war
over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that is controlled by
ethnic Armenians, which killed some 30,000 people before a cease-fire
in 1994.
Relations with Turkey have also been fraught after Ankara closed its
border with Armenia in 1993 in support of ethnic kin in Azerbaijan.
Armenia wants Turkey to recognise mass killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks in 1915 as genocide.
Hayrikyan, 63, leads a moderate opposition party, the National
Self-determination Union and ran for president in 2003.
(Writing by Thomas Grove; Editing by Alison Williams)