PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN CONDOLES ON ARAFAT DEATH

ArmenPress
Nov 11 2004

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
sent a message of condolences to the interim leader of the Palestinian
Authority Rawhi Fattouh to convey his and Armenians’ sympathy to the
people of Palestine in connection with the death of Yasser Arafat.

Arafat died after suffering a brain hemorrhage at the Paris hospital
where he was flown on October 29 from the West Bank headquarters where
he had been penned by Israel for more than 2-1/2 years. His body is
to be flown to Cairo for a ceremony on Friday and then to the West
Bank city of Ramallah for burial at his headquarters.

Under Palestinian law, Arafat was replaced as caretaker president
of the Palestinian Authority by parliamentary speaker Rawhi Fattouh,
who must organize elections within 60 days.

Mahmoud Abbas, a reform-minded former prime minister, was elected
to succeed him as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
the Palestinians’ highest decision-making body.