RUSSIA, ARMENIA TO STAY CLOSE: NEW PRESIDENTS
By Oleg Shchedrov

Reuters
March 24 2008
UK

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will maintain close relations with Armenia,
its staunchest ally in the strategic South Caucasus region, the newly
elected presidents of both countries said during their first meeting
in Moscow on Monday.

"This is your first foreign visit after the polls and we see it as
a symbol of the high priority that Russian-Armenian relations have,"
Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev told Armenia’s Serzh Sarksyan.

"We hope that under your leadership we can continue relations we
enjoyed in the past years," said the Russian president-elect, who
will be sworn in on May 7 to replace outgoing President Vladimir Putin.

Landlocked Christian Armenia hosts a Russian military base and receives
Russian gas at preferential prices.

It provides Moscow with a foothold in a South Caucasus region that
is emerging as a major route for exports of oil from the Caspian Sea
and where Russia and the West are competing for influence.

Sarksyan takes over from outgoing Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
on April 9, but his election last month sparked violent protests by
the opposition, which said the vote was rigged.

Riots in the capital Yerevan prompted the government to introduce a
state of emergency that was lifted last week. Eight people died and
about 200 were injured in post-election clashes.

The warm ties between Armenia and Russia are unlikely to change under
the new leaders because both men are close allies of the outgoing
presidents.

"I hope your taking over the presidential power will contribute to
our traditionally close ties," Sarksyan told Medvedev.

Sarksyan later met Putin and thanked him for Russia’s help during the
election period, though he did not elaborate what form that assistance
had taken.

"We have always highly appreciated your help," Sarksyan told Putin.

"We have never before enjoyed such an unequivocal position.

Putin replied: "I know political processes in Armenia are complicated
… We hope that however Armenia’s internal processes develop,
the capital accumulated in bilateral ties in the past years will be
maintained and developed."

Russia is taking part in stalled international efforts to resolve a
conflict between Armenia and its ex-Soviet Muslim neighbor Azerbaijan
over the breakaway province of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The predominantly Armenian-populated Karabakh broke away from
Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s. Armenia openly backs the
Karabakh separatists, but denies Azeri charges of occupying the region
and some surrounding districts.

Western recognition of Kosovo’s independence has sparked separatist
sentiment in the former Soviet Union, including in Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Kocharyan said last month Yerevan should recognize Karabakh as an
independent state if Azerbaijan does not change its approach to
peace talks.

Russia has not reacted to the idea. Earlier this month it voted in
the United Nations against a resolution demanding Armenian forces
withdraw from Azeri territory.