ARMENIA THIS WEEK
Monday, May 16, 2005
In this issue:
Karabakh gears up for tightly contested parliamentary election
No follow-up in Armenian-Turkish relations after letter exchange
KARABAKH GEARS UP FOR TIGHTLY CONTESTED PARLIAMENTARY POLL
Pre-election campaigning officially began this week in the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic, which is set to hold a parliamentary election on
June 19, its fourth such poll since independence in 1991 and most
contested to date. Seven political parties and blocs have registered
to compete for eleven seats to be awarded through proportional
representation and 127 individual candidates are set to run in 22
electoral districts. Majoritarian races are expected to be especially
close in the Karabakh capital of Stepanakert, where 79 individual
candidates are running in eight constituencies. As in past elections
international observers are due to monitor the election.
The Democratic Party of Artsakh (AZhK), which is the main political
support base for the incumbent President Arkady Ghoukasian, will seek
to maintain its majority status. AZhK was established following the
recent merger between the Democratic Artsakh Union and Karabakh’s
Social Democratic Party that gave the new party 20 seats in the
33-member National Assembly. The party is led by Education Minister
Ashot Ghoulian and head of the “Democracy” parliamentary faction
Vahram Atanesian. Interviewed this week, Atanesian praised the
incumbent government’s record, including strong economic growth and
reforms that have helped harmonize Karabakh’s laws with Council of
Europe recommendations. According to local reports, AZhK is facing
strong challengers, particularly the Bloc of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (HHD) and Movement-88, and the Free
Motherland Party.
After backing Ghoukasian’s re-election in 2002, HHD had a falling out
with the President over policy and personnel issues, backing one of
the Movement-88 party leaders, parliamentarian Eduard Aghabekian in
Stepanakert mayoral elections last August. Aghabekian, who went on to
win the run-off elections, co-founded Movement-88 in early 2004 as a
public organization dedicated to reform in the spirit of the Karabakh
liberation movement launched in February 1988. The HHD-Movement-88’s
pre-election program focuses on the need for Karabakh’s more active
participation in the peace process, increased social spending,
stronger parliamentary supervision of the government and improved
business climate.
The right-of-center Free Motherland Party (AHK) has a four-person
collective leadership comprised of Professors Arpat Avanesian and
Artur Tovmasian (former Parliament Speaker and 1997 presidential
candidate), and businessmen Araik Harutiunian and Rudolf Hiusnunts.
AHK is seen as a pro-establishment party which could potentially
create a coalition with AZhK.
President Ghoukasian stressed in an interview last month that the
elections must be “honest and free.” Speaking at the Council of
Europe over the weekend, Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian urged
the organization to find a formula for Karabakh’s participation in
the process of European integration as a de-facto established,
although formally unrecognized, state. In addition to forming a new
Nagorno Karabakh legislature, the upcoming parliamentary election is
expected to set the stage for presidential succession in Karabakh, as
President Ghoukasian completes his second term in office in 2007.
(Sources: Armenia This Week 1-24; Azat Artsakh 4-15; Regnum.ru 4-16,
22, 5-16; Kavkaz.memo.ru 5-16; Mediamax 5-16)
NO PROGRESS IN ARMENIA-TURKEY RELATIONS FOLLOWING EXCHANGE OF LETTERS
There appeared to be no follow-up on the recent exchange of letters
between President Robert Kocharian and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan as the widely anticipated meeting between the two
leaders this week failed to take place. Turkish official sources,
cited in the press last week, claimed that Erdogan would seek Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev’s permission to meet with Kocharian.
In an apparent ploy to thwart Genocide affirmation, Erdogan made a
widely publicized offer to establish a joint commission of historians
to “study” the Genocide. Kocharian responded with a counter-offer to
normalize relations without pre-conditions. But Turkish officials,
while admitting that their efforts to deny the Genocide have not been
effective, pledged to continue their denial along with the
anti-Armenian blockade.
On a visit to Ankara earlier this month, Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State Laura Kennedy reiterated U.S. support for normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations, adding that Kocharian’s proposal
“certainly has merit” and that the exchange of letters was
“promising” and should be followed-up. Kennedy further denied that
Armenia has territorial claims against Turkey and that that was the
reason for the campaign for international affirmation of the Armenian
Genocide.
On the same day, speaking at a public event in Washington, DC, former
Secretary of State Madeline Albright said it would be a “good idea”
for Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide, in order to improve
its stature in the region and “put the past behind.” (Sources:
Armenia This Week 4-25; Brookings.edu 5-3; U.S. Embassy in Turkey
5-3; Turkish Daily News 5-5; Zaman 5-13)
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress