FEB. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, Armenians re-elected Serzh Sarksyan for a second term as president. Mr Sarksyan won 58% of the vote. His nearest rival, Raffi Hovhannisyan, polled around 37% of the vote. Opponents of Mr Sarksyan accused his supporters of rigging the vote and organised a series of street demonstrations.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)
FEB. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, Armenians re-elected Serzh Sarksyan for a second term as president. Mr Sarksyan won 58% of the vote. His nearest rival, Raffi Hovhannisyan, polled around 37% of the vote. Opponents of Mr Sarksyan accused his supporters of rigging the vote and organised a series of street demonstrations.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)
FEB. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sarksyan is expected to win another five years in power at a presidential election on Feb. 18, media reported. A poll by Gallup, published on Feb. 9, gave Mr Sarksyan 69% of the vote compared to his nearest challenger, Raffi Hovhannisyan, with 11% of the vote.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A pro-government party offered a $13,000 reward to anybody who cuts off the ear of novelist Akram Aylisli. The threat was quickly retracted but the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused pro-government factions of intimidating Mr Aylisli because his new novel is sympathetic towards Armenia, which fought Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sarksyan is expected to win another five years in power at a presidential election on Feb. 18, media reported. A poll by Gallup, published on Feb. 9, gave Mr Sarksyan 69% of the vote compared to his nearest challenger, Raffi Hovhannisyan, with 11% of the vote.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Paris to discuss a solution to their dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. While little substantial progress was made at the one-day meeting, foreign mediators consider getting Azerbaijan and Armenia to sit across a table as positive.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)