The New Anatolian, Turkey
Feb 20 2008

Turkey watches closely as Armenian premier sails to victory to become
president

Turkish officials are watching closely the developments in Armenia as
Serzh Sarkisian, the Armenian prime minster, won the presidential
elections.

Turkish sources say they are concerned that Sarkisian will continue
to follow the "intransigent" policies of the outgoing President
Robert Kocharyan.

Sarkisian is reportedly popular for his economic policies and was
backed by the current president.

However, opposition parties have prepared protests in the capital
after complaining that the contest was rigged on Wednesday.

Sarkisian, 53, received 53 percent of the vote with 98 percent of
ballots counted, according to official results of the ballot
published by Armenian state television today. Former President Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, who has vowed to stage a rally Wednesday in the
capital, Yerevan, to protest the result, trailed on 22 percent.
Analysts had predicted Sarksian would struggle to win the more than
50 percent needed to avoid a second round runoff ballot.

Sarkisian’s two main rivals, Ter-Petrosyan and Artur Baghdasarian, a
former parliamentary speaker, boosted the prime minister’s chances of
winning the election by failing to unite ahead of the vote.

The United States and European Union want Armenia to strengthen its
democracy at a time when the nation is receiving hundreds of millions
of dollars of aid to help raise living standards. The Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has sent almost 400 election
monitors to the elections. They will disclose their verdict late
Wednesday.

Petrosyan’s supporters charge Sarkisian sought to fix the result
through vote-buying, intimidation and biased coverage of the election
by state-run television. The premier rejects the accusations, saying
the election met international standards.

The OSCE and other observers said Armenia’s six votes since 1995,
except last year’s parliamentary election, were flawed.

In the Caucasus, land-locked Armenia lies between Turkey and
Azerbaijan in an important transit region for oil exports from the
Caspian Sea to world markets.

Sarkisian had been seen by many as improving living standards and
facilitating economic growth in the country, but Armenia’s poverty
level still remains high.

One of the biggest tasks facing the new president will be the ongoing
conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh and normalization of ties with Turkey. Turkey has
closed its borders to Armenia and is not allowing direct trade as
long as Armenia continues to occupy parts of Azerbaijan.