CARDINAL BERTONE VISITS ARMENIA DESPITE POLITICAL CRISIS
Catholic World News
March 4 2008
Yerevan, Mar. 4, 2008 (CWNews.com) – Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (bio –
news) left Rome on Tuesday morning, March 4, for a visit to Armenia.
The Vatican Secretary of State had originally planned to begin his
trip on March 2, but he postponed the visit after Armenian President
Robert Kocharian declared a state of emergency in the wake of violent
protests in the capital city, Yerevan.
The protests were staged by opposition leaders who charge that the
nation’s February presidential election was rigged by Prime Minister
Serge Sarkisian, who emerged with a decisive victory. On March 1,
a confrontation between demonstrators and troops in Yerevan erupted
into bloodshed, leaving 8 people dead and over 100 wounded. Rumors
of an attempted coup flew around the Armenian capital on the eve of
the originally scheduled for Cardinal Bertone’s visit.
As the political situation stabilized, however, the Italian cardinal
made the decision to go ahead with his visit to Armenia, foreshortening
his scheduled itinerary. He will leave on Thursday, March 6, to travel
to Azerbaijan, resuming his original travel schedule there.
This is the second time in less than a month that a trip by Cardinal
Bertone takes place immediately after following a dramatic political
development in the country he is visiting. In February the cardinal
arrived in Cuba just after Fidel Castro announced that he would step
down from power.