Friday, March 2, 2018 New Armenian President Elected . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) meets with former Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian in Yerevan, 16 February 2017. The Armenian parliament voted on Friday to elect Armen Sarkissian, a former prime minister who has long resided in Britain, Armenia's new and largely ceremonial president. Sarkissian was nominated for the post by the outgoing President Serzh Sarkisian (no relation) and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) in January. He was also endorsed by the HHK's junior coalition partner, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), and businessman Gagik Tsarukian's alliance, which is officially in opposition to the government. The opposition Yelk alliance, the fourth political group represented in the National Assembly, has rejected Sarkissian's candidacy. Yelk, which holds 9 seats in the 105-member parliament, has also questioned his eligibility to serve as head of state. Sarkissian was elected in secret ballot by 90 votes to 10. He gave a short speech in the parliament moments after the announcement of the vote results. "I want to thank those who voted for me and those who voted against me," he said. "I will invest my long experience and knowledge and my entire energy in properly performing the duties of Armenia's president and properly serving the Republic of Armenia, its citizens and our people." "And I certainly expect your and our citizens' support for and participation in our future important victories," added the president-elect. Only seven Yelk deputies cast ballots on Friday, suggesting that three other lawmakers affiliated with the HHK, Dashnaktsutyun or the Tsarukian Bloc secretly broke ranks to vote against Serzh Sarkisian's preferred successor. It was not clear who they are. Yelk's parliamentary leader, Nikol Pashinian was quick to pounce on that fact. He declared with sarcasm that there are "hidden Yelk members" in the ruling party's ranks. Armen Sarkissian will be sworn in on April 9 immediately after Serzh Sarkisian completes his second and final term in office. The outgoing president is widely expected to become prime minister later in April. With Armenia switching to a parliamentary system of government, he would remain the country's most powerful man in that case. Under sweeping constitutional changes controversially enacted by Serzh Sarkisian, the new president of the republic will have largely ceremonial powers. In particular, he will appoint members of the government, Armenian ambassadors abroad and the Armenian army's top brass. But all of those officials will have to be nominated by the prime minister first. Britain - Prince Charles and former Armenian Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian at a fundraising gala in London. Sarkissian, 64, has repeatedly stated in recent weeks that despite the lack of executive powers he intends to play a major role in Armenia's political and economic life. He has pledged, among other things, to strive to heal what he sees as serious divisions existing within the Armenian society. A physicist and mathematician by education, Sarkissian worked at the Cambridge University when he was appointed as newly independent Armenia's first ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1991. He served as prime minister for four months in 1996-1997 before being again named ambassador in London. His second ambassadorial stint was cut short in 1999 by then President Robert Kocharian. Sarkissian stayed in Britain and made a fortune there in the following decade, working as an advisor and middleman for Western corporations doing business in the former Soviet Union. He was appointed as Armenian ambassador to Britain for a third time in 2013. Georgian PM Visits Armenia . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetian (R) and his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Kvirikashvili are pictured after holding talks in Yerevan, 2 March 2018. Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili met with Armenia's leaders on Friday during an official visit to Yerevan which focused on economic issues, including energy and transport. "We discussed both our bilateral relations and regional issues," Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetian said after talks with Kvirikashvili. "We spoke about possible areas of our cooperation," Karapetian told a joint news briefing. "That includes the Meghri free economic zone [on the Armenian-Iranian border.] We spoke in detail and will continue to talk later today and agreed how we will be moving forward in the energy and transport sectors." "We can conclude we have emerged from the negotiations in a fairly good mood," he added. Kvirikashvili also mentioned the two areas of Georgian-Armenian economic cooperation but, like Karapetian, did not give any details. "We should utilize our economic potential and I think that our meeting today will contribute to that," he said in his opening remarks at the talks. The Georgian premier met with President Serzh Sarkisian later in the day. An Armenian government statement on Karapetian's talks with Kvirikashvili said the two men stressed the importance of "developing energy cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats." Armenia is currently building new electricity transmission lines that will connect it to Georgia and Iran. They are due to be completed next year. Kvirikashvili most probably also discussed in Yerevan the possible opening of new transport corridors between Georgia and Russia that would facilitate cargo shipments to and from Armenia. Most of Russian-Armenian trade is currently carried out through the sole Russian-Georgian border crossing at Upper Lars. Traffic along that mountainous road is frequently blocked by blizzards in winter months. The two other roads connecting Georgia and Russia pass through the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They were closed even before the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. In 2011, Moscow and Tbilisi agreed to hire a Swiss company to operate special customs checkpoints to be set up on the administrative boundaries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Despite their lingering political disagreements, the two sides seem to have slowly but steadily made progress towards the implementation of that agreement. The Georgian government signed a relevant contract with a Swiss company on December 19. A senior Russian diplomat said in January that Moscow will likely follow suit "in the coming months." Armenian leaders have repeatedly expressed hope that the 2011 Russian-Georgian deal will be implemented. Russia's Putin Congratulates Armenian President-Elect Russia - President Vladimir Putin greets his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Moscow, 15 November 2017. Russian President Vladimir Putin promptly congratulated Armen Sarkissian on being elected Armenia's new president on Friday. In a congratulatory message reported by the Kremlin, Putin expressed confidence that Sarkissian will contribute to a "further development" of Russian-Armenian relations and "deepening of Eurasian integration to the benefit of the brotherly peoples of the two countries." Sarkissian has avoided detailed public statements on foreign policy issues since being nominated for president by the outgoing President Serzh Sarkisian in January. But he did stress the economic importance of Armenia's membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) when he addressed the parliament on Thursday. "Armenia joined the EEU, which is an important and significant fact for the simple reason that a republic of three million people cannot be of much interest to a large investor," said the 64-year-old former scholar. Tariff-free access to the markets in Russia and other EEU member states makes Armenia far more attractive to investors, he added. Sarkissian, who has lived in Britain for nearly three decades, at the same time praised Armenia's Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the European Union signed in November. Since the early 2000s the Armenian president-elect has advised major Western corporations on doing business in Russia, Kazakhstan and other ex-Soviet states. Under Armenia's recently amended constitution, Sarkissian will have largely ceremonial powers. He will be able, among other things, to sign international treaties recommended by the Armenian government. Government Criticized For Not Funding More IT Labs In Armenian Schools . Marine Khachatrian Armenia - Schoolchildren in Yerevan participate in the annual Hour of Code event designed to introduce them to computer programming, 10 December 2017. An Armenian information technology (IT) association criticized the government on Friday for not financing more engineering labs in public schools, saying that they are essential for continued rapid growth Armenia's IT sector. The Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE) began organizing extracurricular robotics and computer programming courses for schoolchildren in 2008. More than 5,000 students currently study at the UITE's Armath labs functioning in 225 schools across the country. They are equipped with computers, robot parts and 3D printers provided by IT firms and other private donors. Most labs have been opened since 2014. IT instructors running 160 of them are paid by the government. The UITE pays the wages of their colleagues working in the other schools. "These 65 labs are a major financial burden: around 60 million drams ($125,000) a year," the UITE chairman, Karen Vartanian, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "If we keep doing that on our own we will go bankrupt." He said in that in an effort to earn some revenue and keep the funding them, UITE has teamed up with an Indian tech company to open Armath labs in schools in India. Armenia - Schoolchildren take part in a robotics contest in Yerevan, 16 April 2016. Vartanian lambasted the Armenian government for not increasing its funding for the Armath program which he said currently totals 120 million drams ($250,000) annually. He insisted that the labs are helping to alleviate a shortage of skilled personnel widely seen as the main challenge facing the Armenian tech industry. IT is the fastest growing sector of Armenia's economy, having expanded by over 20 percent annually in the past decade. Local subsidiaries of several U.S. tech giants are a key component of the sector employing about 15,000 mostly young engineers. Industry executives and analysts say the sector would have grown even faster had the quality of education at IT departments of Armenian universities been adequate. Armenia - Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili (C) visits the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, 2 March 2018. According to the UITE, many of the students taking IT courses in the Armath labs will be skilled enough to work for tech firms right after finishing school. The union had originally hoped to open such labs in all 1,400 or so Armenian schools by 2018. Thousands of other Armenian schoolchildren are enrolled in Yerevan's Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, mainly studying computer programming, robotics and animation. The state-of-the-art center was founded by U.S.-Armenian philanthropist Sam Simonian in 2011 and has since opened several branches in other parts of the country. Press Review "Haykakan Zhamanak" sees a "very serious legal problem" with Armen Sarkissian's eligibility to serve as Armenia's president. The paper says he has failed to prove that he has not been a citizen of Britain or any other foreign state for the past six years. It says he could have easily dispelled all doubts by producing an official British document confirming his claims that he gave up British citizenship in 2011. "Ever since the coup d' tat of 1998 Armenia's presidents have been elected with blatant violations of the constitution," writes "Zhoghovurd." "Robert Kocharian lacked 10-year citizenship required by the constitution as he had not permanently lived in Armenia [that long.] The same happened in the case of Serzh Sarkisian. Under Article 78 of the constitution state all officials except the president of the republic must be relieved of their duties when they are registered as presidential election candidates. But contrary to this requirement, then Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian continued his tenure at that time [in 2007-2008.] And now there is a problem with Armen Sarkissian." "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" mocks statements by senior members of the ruling Republican Party (HHK) that Serzh Sarkisian will have to become prime minister even against his will if the HHK leadership wants him to. "It looks like a national front will be formed to liberate Serzh Sarkisian from his own party's tight grp," the paper says with sarcasm. "The party elite is forcing the poor guy to do various bad things against his will. If we regard the party as something like a family, we must conclude that Serzh Sarkisian is subjected to domestic violence." "Hraparak" says that nothing will change in Armenian politics in the near future. "In the coming years we will be seeing the same figures whose positions will have slightly different names but will retain the same functions," the paper predicts grimly. "Our influence on the formation of the country's governments has been reduced to a minimum," it claims. (Hovannes Movsisian) 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