Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan,
10 Jan 2007 p 3
NKR presidential election
by Kristine Khanumian
A presidential election will be held in the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh
republic] in the summer. Who are the potential candidates for
president? Despite his numerous statements, incumbent President
Arkadi Ghukasian [Arkadiy Gukasyan] continues to remain the No 1
candidate.
The second candidate may be the parliament speaker, Ashot Ghulian
[Ashot Gulyan]. It has been repeatedly mentioned over the past two
years that in order to retain power, the authorities will do
everything possible not only to nominate Ghulian’s candidacy but to
ensure his victory as well. Ghulian, who is considered to be a
politician "put forward" by Ghukasian, started his political carrier
after taking over the post of NKR foreign minister from Naira
Melkumian [Naira Melkumyan]. However, before the parliamentary
election in 2005, he became education, culture and sport minister.
This replacement could seem nonsense at first sight, but things are
not that simple. Before that, Armen Sarkisian [Armen Sarkisyan],
member of the Dashnak party [the Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun, RFD] held the post of education, culture and sport
minister. However, as a result of disagreements between the
authorities and the Karabakh wing of the ARFD, Sarkisian was
dismissed from the post and replaced with Ghulian. Ghulian’s
appointment to the post had its own goal: after local government
elections (as a result of which opposition representatives gained
victory), the authorities wanted to take "revenge" and unite their
forces. The army and the police apparently were behind the
authorities but a powerful system like education had been neglected.
After Ghulian’s appointment to the post of education, culture and
sport minister, DPA-fication (Democratic Party of Artsakh [Karabakh],
established at the initiative of the incumbent regime) started in the
Nagornyy Karabakh republic. The result was that the army, the police
and the education system ensured the victory of the Democratic Party
of Artsakh in the election. Ghulian was elected member of parliament
under the proportional representation system and assumed the post of
speaker of parliament. People also say that Ghulian is supported by
top officials and businessmen who are natives of Askaran [town in
Nagornyy Karabakh].
The head of the National Security Service, Bako Saakian, is
considered to be the No 3 candidate to come to power in the NKR. Many
people in Karabakh have heard about him but few have seen the results
of his activity. People say that when Saakian was foreign minister
for a short period of time, he implemented serious reforms in the
system. However, he was not given an opportunity to work for long.
Saakian took part in almost all state events but preferred to remain
in the "shadow". People say that his supporter is in Yerevan.
It cannot be ruled out that Ghulian and Saakian will put forward
their candidacies in order to get as many opposition votes as
possible in favour of the authorities.
Potential candidate No 4 is Deputy Foreign Minister Masis Mailian
[Masis Mailyan]. He is known as an official who has outlived many
ministers and has not been in the foreground that much until
recently. He has become active only recently as a result of which his
rating has very much gone up.
Candidate No 5 is the leader of the RFD – Movement-88 parliamentary
group and former education, culture and sport minister, Armen
Sarkisian. Certainly, he is not considered to be as strong as the
rest of the candidates, but let us not forget that he is a member of
the RFD and this may have a serious impact on the results of the
election – certainly, if he puts himself forward.