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Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 24 2013
Protests in Armenia led by Raffi Hovannisian against re-elected president
24 February 2013 - 5:01pm
Thousands of people have protested in Armenia's capital Yerevan
against the re-election of President Serzh Sarksyan, asserting that an
opposition party leader was the real winner. International monitors
said Monday's vote was an improvement on recent elections in Armenia
but there was little competition as some of Sarksyan's most prominent
rivals did not run, saying the result was likely to be skewed to
deliver him victory.
The rally in Yerevan's Freedom Square was peaceful and there were no
protests in other cities in the ex-Soviet republic. But analysts are
concerned about instability in a region that is a key transit route
for Caspian gas and oil deliveries to Europe.
Armenia, a South Caucasus country of 3.2 million that has a collective
security deal with Russia, is also locked in dispute with neighbour
Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
About 30,000 people were killed in a 1990s war between the neighbours
over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside
Azerbaijan, which Armenian-backed rebels wrested from Azeri troops.
From: A. Papazian
Feb 24 2013
Protests in Armenia led by Raffi Hovannisian against re-elected president
24 February 2013 - 5:01pm
Thousands of people have protested in Armenia's capital Yerevan
against the re-election of President Serzh Sarksyan, asserting that an
opposition party leader was the real winner. International monitors
said Monday's vote was an improvement on recent elections in Armenia
but there was little competition as some of Sarksyan's most prominent
rivals did not run, saying the result was likely to be skewed to
deliver him victory.
The rally in Yerevan's Freedom Square was peaceful and there were no
protests in other cities in the ex-Soviet republic. But analysts are
concerned about instability in a region that is a key transit route
for Caspian gas and oil deliveries to Europe.
Armenia, a South Caucasus country of 3.2 million that has a collective
security deal with Russia, is also locked in dispute with neighbour
Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
About 30,000 people were killed in a 1990s war between the neighbours
over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside
Azerbaijan, which Armenian-backed rebels wrested from Azeri troops.
From: A. Papazian