Putin to seek loyalty vow on visit to Armenia
Turkish Press
03/24/2005 12:18 GMT
Published: 3/24/2005
YEREVAN – Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected late Thursday
in Armenia for a visit aimed at securing a vow of loyalty from Moscow’s
ex-Soviet ally.
Putin, accompanied on the day-and-a-half working visit by his wife
Lyudmilla, was due to dine with the Armenian presidential couple
before addressing the main reason for his visit on Friday.
The Russian leader will hold talks with his counterpart President
Robert Kocharian and take part in a ceremony to mark the opening of
the Year of Russia in Armenia.
The problem of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic
Armenian enclave in the heart of Azerbaijan, will be discussed.
And the construction of a gas pipeline between Armenia and Iran, which
is viewed unfavourably by Moscow, was also to feature on the agenda.
The Karabakh war erupted before the fall of the Soviet Union in
1988 and escalated after Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent,
ending in a ceasefire in 1994 with over one million people displaced
and 25,000 killed.
Russia co-chairs, with France and the United States, the Minsk group,
tasked by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
with finding a negotiated solution to the dispute.
03/24/2005 12:18 GMT
