KARABAKH LEADER TRYING TO GET MOSCOW’S APPROVAL FOR THIRD TERM – ARMENIAN PAPER

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
10 Feb 07

Text of Kristine Khanumyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan
Zhamanak on 10 February headlined "Get your ‘approval’ from Kocharyan"

The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR], Arkadi
Ghukasyan, went to Moscow at the beginning of February. According
to our information, he went there to get approval to run for a third
term in office.

Usually, if the president goes somewhere, even if he goes to Yerevan,
his press secretary sends a press release to journalists saying
where the president has gone. But this time, the press secretary
kept quiet. This shows that Ghukasyan had gone off to Moscow
secretly. According to our Moscow sources, when the press reported
Ghukasyan’s visit, the Russians organized an information leak that in
Moscow, Ghukasyan met the head of the culture and regional relations
department of the Russian presidential administration, Modest Kolerov.

Kolerov told Ghukasyan that the Russian leadership fully trusts
[Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan and he is the one who should
solve such problems. In fact, Ghukasyan did not get the expected
"approval" from the Russians. As for Kocharyan, in an ordinary
situation he would do everything possible to make Ghukasyan NKR
president for a third time, but today the situation is different.

It should be recalled that for two years already Kocharyan has
not taken part in celebrations in Karabakh. He did not even go to
Stepanakert to take part in ceremonies to mark the 15th anniversary
of the NKR’s independence, though he should have been there as the
first president of the NKR. It is obvious that Kocharyan-Ghukasyan
relations are not as they used to be. Moreover, Ghukasyan went to
Moscow bypassing Kocharyan, but he was made to understand there that
"my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal". If Ghukasyan goes to Yerevan in
the near future, this will mean that he has decided to meet Kocharyan
to discuss everything with him. But if not, this will mean that he
has decided to wait for the results of the parliamentary election in
Armenia, or to be more precise, he has decided to wait for [Defence
Minister] Serzh Sargsyan to become Armenian prime minister. They say
Sargsyan had given serious promises to Ghukasyan. We shall soon learn
Ghukasyan’s strategy. As for the NKR president’s press secretary,
Mr Eduard Atanesyan, he is still keeping quiet about Ghukasyan’s
visit to Moscow, although we would still like him to comment on it.