Thursday, January 18, 2017 Ex-PM Deemed Fit To Be Armenian President . Ruzanna Stepanian Britain - Prince Charles and former Armenian Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian (R) at a 2010 fundraising gala in London. The ruling Republican Party (HHK) on Thursday pointedly declined to deny reports that Armen Sarkissian, a former Armenian prime minister who has lived in Britain for nearly three decades, will become Armenia's next president. The Armenian parliament controlled by the HHK will elect a president of the republic in early March, one month before the current President Serzh Sarkisian completes his second and final term. Armenia will also switch to the parliamentary system of government in April, meaning that the new president will have largely ceremonial powers. Sarkisian said on Tuesday that the next head of state must be a renowned but politically inexperienced person who has "broad connections in both Armenia and the Diaspora." But he did not name anyone. Some Armenian newspapers claimed this week that Armen Sarkissian (no relation), who is currently Armenia's ambassador in London, is the outgoing president's preferred successor. Commenting on those reports, the HHK's parliamentary leader, Vahram Baghdasarian, said the prominent ambassador, who briefly served as Armenia's prime minister in 1996-1997, meets the requirements specified by Serzh Sarkisian. "It is logical to discuss his candidacy because when you look at his personality and the criteria [set by Serzh Sarkisian] you see conformity there," Baghdasarian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "And if that candidacy is nominated we will discuss it." Baghdasarian insisted that Armen Sarkissian's four-month tenure as Armenian prime minister does not count as political experience and is therefore not an obstacle to his potential presidency. "I don't think we can find any well-known individuals who have never dealt with politics at all," he said. The HHK's governing board headed by President Sarkisian was due to meet and discuss the matter later in the day. A physicist and mathematician by education, Armen Sarkissian worked at the Cambridge University when he was appointed as newly independent Armenia's first ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1991. After another ambassadorial stint cut short in 1999 by then President Robert Kocharian, Sarkissian stayed in London and went on to work as a senior advisor to major Western corporations such as BP, Alcatel and Bank of America. He also founded and ran the Eurasia Center of a Cambridge University business school from 2001-2011. Sarkissian, 64, also established an apparently friendly rapport with Britain's Prince Charles. The two men jointly raised funds for charity projects in Scotland and Armenia. Sarkissian was instrumental in Charles's May 2013 visit to Armenia. He was again appointed as Armenian ambassador to the UK four months after that trip. Government Plans Anti-Graft Measures In 2018 . Sisak Gabrielian Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 18Jan2018. The Armenian government approved on Thursday more than 1.3 billion drams ($2.8 million) in funding for a range of anti-corruption measures which it said will be taken this year. The government said it will concentrate on "neutralizing and/or reducing corruption risks" in law enforcement, tax collection, healthcare and education. At a weekly meeting chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, it made corresponding changes in a three-year plan of actions against various corrupt practices which was adopted in 2015. Speaking at the cabinet meeting, a senior official said the planned measures will target 84 types of "corruption risks" but gave no details. The government also did not immediately specify the sources of funding for those measures. It is understood to be planning to spend a large part of that money on training courses for law-enforcement and tax officers and employees of state medical and educational institutions. Karapetian has repeatedly pledged to combat corruption since taking office in September 2016. A new anti-graft state body is due to start functioning this spring. The Commission on Preventing Corruption is tasked with scrutinizing income and asset declarations to be submitted by over 2,000 senior state officials and investigating possible conflicts of interest among them. Under a government bill passed by the Armenian parliament in June 2017, the commission will be empowered to ask law-enforcement bodies to prosecute officials suspected of graft. Armenian civic organizations remain very skeptical about these efforts. They say that the authorities still lack the political will to tackle the problem in earnest. Armenia ranked, together with Bolivia and Vietnam, 113th out of 176 countries evaluated in Transparency International's most recent Corruption Perceptions Index released in January 2016. Armenia, Azerbaijan `Agree' On Truce Monitoring In Karabakh Poland - The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and U.S., Russian and French mediators meet in Krakow,18Jan2018. The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly agreed on Thursday to expand an international mission monitoring the ceasefire regime along the Nagorno-Karabakh "line of contact" and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov held what the latter described as a "positive" meeting in the Polish city of Krakow to try to build on progress which they appeared to have made at their previous talks held in Vienna in December. The three-hour meeting began in the presence of the U.S., Russian and French mediators leading the OSCE Minsk Group. The two ministers then spoke in a tete-a-tete format. A statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry said they discussed "additional steps to ease tension in the conflict zone and possibilities of intensifying the negotiation process." "The sides agreed in principle to implement the decision to expand the capacity of the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office," it added without elaborating. The Azerbaijani side did not immediately confirm this. Mammadyarov said only that the talks were "positive." "The common approach is that most intensive, substantive and logical negotiations must continue if we are to reach progress towards the conflict's resolution and peace and stability in the region," the Azerbaijani minister told the Trend news agency. Mammadyarov also said that the three mediators presented the two sides with "a number of creative ideas" on a Karabakh settlement. He did not elaborate. The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijani agreed to the expansion of a small OSCE team periodically monitoring ceasefire in the Karabakh conflict zone when they met in Vienna in May 2016. The team led by Andzrej Kasprzyk consists of a small number of officials who travel to Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border once or twice a month to briefly monitor the parties' compliance with truce agreements reached in 1994 and 1995. Azerbaijan officially stated in March 2017 that it will not allow the OSCE to deploy monitors on the Karabakh frontline "in the absence of withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the occupied territories." Baku has been just as reluctant to allow international investigations of truce violations there, which were also agreed upon in May 2016. Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev pledged to intensify the protracted search for a Karabakh peace and bolster the ceasefire at their most recent talks held in Geneva in October 2017. Both Mammadyarov and the Armenian Foreign Ministry said after the Krakow talks that the Minsk Group co-chairs will again tour the conflict zone early next month. But it remained unclear whether the two presidents could meet again before Sarkisian serves out his final presidential term in early April. Press Review "Zhamanak" is pessimistic about the outcome of Thursday's meeting in Krakow, Poland of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. The paper says the only "rational expectation" from the talks is that they will help to maintain the current relative calm on the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontlines. This is what the U.S., Russian and French mediators are trying to achieve, it says. "On the other hand, the Russian foreign minister stated that the Karabakh conflict cannot be resolved with a single document and requires a phased approach. Azerbaijan welcomed that statement, while Armenia said [Sergei] Lavrov meant a phased implementation of a package settlement." "Aravot" comments on the criteria for the choice of Armenia's next president which were laid out by President Serzh Sarkisian earlier this week. "Undoubtedly, the requirements listed by Serzh Sarkisian are important: speaking foreign languages, having a good reputation in Armenia and the Diaspora as well as international connections, being non-partisan and impartial," editorializes the paper. "This is what the president probably meant when he spoke of [the next president's] non-involvement in politics." But, the paper says, the president's "human qualities" are more important. The head of state must be an "extremely honest" and "wise" person who will not lose touch with ordinary people, it says. "Hraparak" writes on growing reports that the National Assembly will elect Armen Sarkissian, Armenia's ambassador to Britain, as the next president of the republic. "He not only by and large meets the requirements listed by Serzh Sarkisian the other day but has many connections in the outside world and, according to some reports, has already started using those connections for his needs," says the paper. "Only one thing hampers his nomination. Under Article 124 of the constitution, the president of the republic cannot engage in entrepreneurial activity. But every politically conscious person in Armenia knows that Armen Sarkissian is also a successful businessman. But getting around the law and electing a president in an unconstitutional way is not a new phenomenon for our country. They will do that again." "Zhoghovurd" says the authorities are now busy telling the people that their quality of life has improved and citing various statistical data and positive reports by foreign agencies for that purpose. "But somehow reality is not changing regardless of their statements," the paper says. "Citizens are witnessing a very different picture in their day-to-day life." (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org