ARMENIA: 2006 AT GLANCE
By Armen Dulian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 28 2006
The year 2006 was quite eventful for Armenia, even if it saw no
elections and political upheavals. Below are the top ten developments
which the RFE/RL Armenian Service believes have dominated the public
agenda in the past twelve months.
1. The crash on May 3 of an Armenian airliner off the Russian Black
Sea coast. All 113 people on board the Airbus A-320 were killed in
what was the worst air disaster in Armenia’s history.
2. The ouster on May 12 of then parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian’s
Orinats Yerkir party from the governing coalition.
3. The official disclosure in June of the international mediators’
most recent plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
4. The announcement on July 18 of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s
affiliation with the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The
move was widely construed as a confirmation of Sarkisian’s intention
to contest the next presidential election due in 2008.
5. The emergence and rapid expansion throughout the year of a
new political party led by Gagik Tsarukian, the most influential
of Armenia’s government-connected tycoons. The Prosperous Armenia
party is now tipped to make a strong showing in the forthcoming
parliamentary elections.
6. The year saw more street protests by residents of Yerevan that
were forcibly evicted from their homes as a result of the ongoing
massive redevelopment in the city center. The evictions were declared
unconstitutional by Armenia’s Constitutional Court.
7. A further strengthening of the national currency, the dram,
that triggered fresh opposition allegations about exchange rate
manipulation. One U.S. dollar is now worth roughly 360 drams. It
traded at about 460 drams at the beginning of 2006.
8. An apparent rise in anti-Russian sentiment fuelled by continued
racially motivated killings of Armenians in Russia.
9. The year saw a number of high-profile cultural events such as
Armenia’s first-ever participation in the Eurovision song contest,
an open-air concert given by Charles Aznavour and other famous French
singers, and the annual Golden Apricot film festival in Yerevan.
10. The Armenian team’s victory in the 2006 world Chess Olympiad.