Armenia’s Ambassador presents credentials to Iraqi President

Armenia’s Ambassador presents credentials to Iraqi President

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15:58, 9 January, 2019

YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Ambassador to Iraq Hrachya Poladyan on January 8 presented his credentials to Iraqi President Barham Salih, the Armenian foreign ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting Ambassador Poladyan conveyed the warm greetings and wishes of Armenian President Armen Sarkissian to President Salih. The Ambassador assured that his daily working agenda will be directed for deepening and developing the bilateral cooperation, adding that he will make all efforts to strengthen and intensify the Armenian-Iraqi friendly ties.

Hrachya Poladyan said currently the trade turnover between Armenia and Iraq reaches nearly 120 million USD, and about 5000 Iraqi tourists visited Armenia in 2018, noting that this number can grow.

In his turn the President of Iraq congratulated the Ambassador on assuming office and touched upon the great role of the Armenian community in developing the relations of the two countries, stating that the Iraqi-Armenian community has historical roots in this country and is one of the creators of Iraq’s cultural heritage. He also called on Armenia to be engaged in Iraq’s restoration works.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Turkish press: ‘Gender and Memory Walks’ unearth hidden secrets of Istanbul

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Photos taken by Sabancı University academic and artist Murat Germen

Situated along the Western bank of Istanbul’s Golden Horn, the intertwined neighborhoods of Fener and Balat are among the historically richest quarters of Istanbul. 

With its colorful streets, it has lately been the setting scene of several TV series. But the traditional Jewish quarter whose history goes as far back as Byzantine times hides in each corner a different story that can inspire many films and TV series. 

Some of the principal actors in these stories are women, yet, as it is the case with other parts of the city, their tales are unknown to the larger public. 

That’s why walks organized by Sabancı University in this legendary city’s most historic quarters come as social archeological excavations are digging deep into the historic layers of Istanbul and bringing to the surface figures that have left a mark on the city. 

Since 2014 Sabancı University’s Gender and Women’s Studies Excellence Center (SU Gender) has been conducting “Curious Steps: Gender and Memory Walks,” aimed at contributing to our understanding of the city and its neighborhoods from the perspective of gender and memory. 

The walks’ gender perspective enables us to discover prominent female figures who, despite their accomplishments, have remained in the shadow because of their gender. 

One such figure is Eleni Fotiadou Küreman. She was Turkey’s first professional female photojournalist. 

Starting her career as a press photographer in 1947 at the Associated Press agency, she then worked as a photo reporter for several newspapers. 

She had to resort to different methods to outsmart her male colleagues. 

“When I was a sports reporter, everybody would wait at the goal posts opposite the famous goal keepers whilst I would stand behind them as they were unlikely to let a goal slip in. Male photo reporters would tease me for this but it was me who always caught the best shots. It would always be Eleni who got the only picture when a good goal keeper failed to hold the ball,” she had said. 

Her relationship with Balat? She studied in the Ioakimio Fener Greek High School, located in Balat, which is believed to take its name from palatiyon, meaning “palace” in Greek. When you google this high school, you come across another one, the Fener Greek Orthodox college. Built in the early 1880’s the institution within predates the Ottoman arrival, making it Turkey’s oldest educational body. 

Still in function, the Fener Greek High School for male students overshadows the Ioakimio High School for female students not only in the cyberspace but also in physical standing too. Ioakimio’s building is barely remarkable in contrast to the Fener Greek High School, which is locally known as “red castle” for its castellated red-brick facade. 

Established in 1879 for the education of Greek girls, Ioakimio, which had around 590 students, was closed in 1988 as it could no longer find students to enroll. From that time on the Fener Greek High School transitioned to mixed education. 

Küreman, meanwhile, ended her professional career abruptly in 1964, after she became the only photographer to witness the fire at the Veli Efendi Hippodrome. “She left her studio for a while and when she came back she found her dark room in shambles and saw her friends looking for the pictures. She was terribly affected by this incident. She has never forgiven her friends and said goodbye to the profession,” her husband had explained. 

We learn all this thanks to the storytellers, some of which are the researchers themselves who accompanied a group of journalists during the walk that took place last month. 

The walk started from the Women’s Library in Balat first with the story of Selma Emiroğlu, Turkey’s first professional female cartoonist. 

As her cartoons became highly appreciated in the mid-1940’s when she was still in high school, Emiroğlu was asked to drop out from school to dedicate more time to the magazine she worked for at the time. As the creator of the Black Cat Gang, which was a children’s favorite, she was promised to be sent to Walt Disney on a scholarship. But once she left the school she never heard about the scholarship ever. As her workload increased, each time she asked for a pay raise she was told, “Shame on you. Why would a child like you talk about money?” She was, however, 17 at that time. As she was not rewarded for her work andpromises were not kept, she turned sour and shifted toward music, according to Mevhibe Yalçın, who made the research about her. 

Gentrification of Balat 

The next stop in the walk was the Blue Pencil Association whose board of directors is made up entirely of women. 

“I have told the story about this association during the walk three years ago. Today I had trouble finding the location,” said the researcher and story teller Ayşegül Özadak. Nothing better than this observation can summarize the changes that the neighborhood has been undergoing. Having entered UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list in 1985, Balat has seen some rehabilitation and restoration projects in the 1990’s. Starting from the 2000’s, it became the target of big investors and urban transformation projects that risks the destruction of the quarter’s multi-cultural texture. 

As it could not avoid partial gentrification, the shifting focus of Blue Pencil Association’s activities shows us how the neighborhood continues to be the entry point for new migrants. Having started in the 2000’s to work with children and women from low-income families that migrated from different parts of Anatolia, the association now works largely with Syrian children and women. 

Memory perspective 

Just as in the gender perspective of the walks the memory dimension of the walks can turn into an exercise of remembering the sad past. Balat hosts several abandoned buildings belonging to non-Muslim minorities. One of them is Khorenyan School, which started to function in 1866. 

“In 1922 the school turned into a girls’ school, because after the 1915 incidents 300 orphan girls were brought to the school,” according to Garbis Horasanciyan, who was born in Fener in 1948. 

The researchers tried to dig more about the girl students who came after the WWI massacres of Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans, but the head of the Kandilli Armenian Church, İkran Kevorkyan, did not want to talk much about it, as, according to him, it would only serve to make old wounds bleed. But he did stress to the researchers that in the last 70 years Fener/Balat’s Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities have dwindled significantly.

Gender and Memory walks, Sabancı University, Balat

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/gender-and-memory-walks-unearth-hidden-secrets-of-istanbul-140170?fbclid=IwAR0MS-h0CPUJ5Kdrj5CNAbiWsuj54jfNk1w0XJe0F_D_zGNaC57hfjHoOM4

Pashinyan against granting the Diaspora Armenians the right to vote in elections in Armenia

Arminfo, Armenia
Dec 19 2018

ArmInfo. After the revolution, there are no  Armenians of the Diaspora and the RA, there are just Armenians. This  was announced by the acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan  at the meeting with the participants of the NerUzh program in  Dilijan.

According to him, equal conditions are created in Armenia for  all Armenians so that they work and open their own business in their  homeland.  "I want the economic revolution to be accomplished not by  the government, but by the people. We are doing everything possible  to do this, creating all conditions, and not at a declarative level,  but at a practical level, "said Pashinyan, adding that the  possibility of creating venture capital and the programs that emanate  from it is being considered. startups.At the same time, he spoke  against granting the Diaspora Armenians the right to vote during  elections in Armenia. "This is not expedient from both political and  technical points of view. 

For example, if we take Russia, if Armenians of Russia get the right  to vote in elections in Armenia, then more polling stations should be  opened there than in the RA itself, as far as politically expedient  of view, and technically it will be very difficult to control the  whole process, "Pashinyan explained.He also declared a high  possibility of abolishing Mindiaspora. "There is such a probability,  but this does not mean that other departments will not deal with  these issues. Almost all ministries of Armenia have the functions of  working with the Diaspora," Pashinyan said. The acting  prime  minister also stressed the importance of implementing high  technologies, especially in the defense sphere of the republic, which  will allow it to more effectively counter emerging threats.

Culture: Istanbul hosts first-ever Parajanov exhibition

Panorama, Armenia
Dec 14 2018
Culture 18:03 14/12/2018 Armenia

The first ever-exhibition dedicated to Sergei Parajanov, a world-renowned Armenian director, artist and scriptwriter, has opened in Istanbul, Turkey.

Titled “Parajanov with Sarkis’, the exhibition opened in Pera Museum in the city's Beyoglu district on Thursday, December 13, to run through March 17, 2019, Ermenihaber reports.

Coordinated by the director of the Sergei Parajanov Museum in Yerevan, Zaven Sargsyan, the event exhibits various works by the artist, including paintings, collages, trimmings, sketches themed after his movies, stage costumes, mosaics, photos, etc.

The exhibition is organized by Pera Museum in collaboration with the Parajanov Museum. It marks the 95th birthday anniversary of the great artist.

Sergei Parajanov or Paradjanov (born Sarkis Paradjanian; 1924-1990) was one of the best known directors of Soviet films. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to an Armenian family, his work reflected the ethnic diversity of the Caucusus where he was raised.

His first major work was Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964), which earned him an international reputation for its rich use of costume and color, and its whimsical portrayal of rural life. Possibly his greatest work, The Color of Pomegranates (1969), described the life of the Armenian poet Sayat Nova. The film angered the Soviet authorities, who claimed that it evoked nationalist sentiment.

Claiming that Parajanov promoted homosexuality, the government arrested him in 1973 and sentenced him to five years in a labor camp. A large number of prominent artists, writers and filmmakers protested his sentence, but Parajanov was only released four years later, in large part due to the efforts of the French surrealist Louis Aragon. He was banned for making films for many years afterwards, when he was living in Tbilisi, but he was allowed to make The Legend of Suram Fortress (1984), which captured much of the color of his earlier work.

He managed to direct three more films before he died of cancer in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1990. A house was built for him in Yerevan which was completed shortly after his death, but which now houses all his belongings and has been turned into the Parajanov Museum.

Armenian diplomat to arrive in Baku tomorrow

Vestnik Kavkaza
Dec 13 2018
Armenian diplomat to arrive in Baku tomorrow

13 Dec in 13:20

Armenia will participate in a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), which will be held in Baku on December 14, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Nagdalyan said.

"The director of the Armenian Foreign Ministry's department for multilateral and bilateral economic cooperation, Ashot Kocharyan, will be present at the session," Interfax cited her as saying.

The 52nd plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) took place in Yerevan on November 26, where the chairmanship was transferred from Armenia to Azerbaijan.

Leader of Karabakh Armenians touring OSCE countries – what does Azerbaijan have to say?

JAM News
Nov 27 2018

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is protesting while experts are trying to figure out Sahakyan’s plan

The de-facto president of Nagorno Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan, has been traveling around the countries of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – the main body responsible for finding a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan is not happy about this.

“The tour of the head of the illegal formation [Karabakh] to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries may lead to an unexpected development of the situation around the conflict. If this happens, the entire responsibility will fall on the Armenian side,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

• Azerbaijani government protests against French delegation’s visit to Nagorno-Karabakh

• My Karabakh – Part III: Summer of 1988, Yerevan demands Karabakh be returned

• How the game of war is played in Armenia and Azerbaijan

Sahakyan is on a working visit to Moscow. Azerbaijan has lodged a complaint with the Russian authorities, saying that in receiving Sahakyan, Moscow is “violating the friendship, cooperation and mutual security agreement between Russia and Azerbaijan”.

Azerbaijan says that the two countries have an agreement for “the parties not to support separatist movements, and also prohibit and suppress the activities of individuals against state sovereignty, independence and the territorial integrity of the other party”.

Prior to that, Sahakyan visited France and the USA. France received a letter of protest from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, while the United States and Russia only received statements.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is an unrecognised republic in the South Caucasus, populated by ethnic Armenians. Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas came under Armenian control as a result of hostilities in 1991-1994. The conflict is considered “frozen”, though shootings and flareups frequently break out along the line of contact which result in casualties on both sides.

The OSCE Minsk Group is a group of member countries leading the search for a peaceful resolution to the Karabakh conflict.

Sahakyan’s visit to Moscow was made public on 24 November by his press service. No details regarding his visit have been reported.

Azerbaijani pundits say that Sahakyan’s visits indicate an intention to have the Karabakh Armenians as a party in the negotiations on the Karabakh conflict.

JAMnews’ political commentator Shahin Rzayev:

“There is nothing new in the visits of the leader of the Karabakh Armenians to the countries of Europe and Russia. This has been their practice since the beginning of the conflict in the 90s.

“The main purpose of these visits is not political, but rather humanitarian. Their voices have already been heard, because the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group regularly visits Khankendi [ed. Stepanakert, the de-facto capital of Karabakh]. During these visits, the leaders of the Karabakh Armenians meet with various charitable foundations and agree on donations to ease the already difficult life in the self-proclaimed republic.

“Why has Azerbaijan’s reaction been stronger than before? Probably because of the change in power in Armenia, The new leader, Nikol Pashinyan, has also proposed to accept the Karabakh Armenians as a party to the conflict and to negotiate with them directly. This annoys Baku.

“France came first as Sahakyan began his tour in Paris. Then he went to Washington and Moscow, and the reaction softened a bit. One can only guess the reasons, but the US and Russia are probably more respected by our government and are far more afraid of them than they are of France.”

Russian MP: We love Armenia regardless of who is ruling

News.am, Armenia
Nov 30 2018
Russian MP: We love Armenia regardless of who is ruling Russian MP: We love Armenia regardless of who is ruling

14:59, 30.11.2018
                  

YEREVAN. – At all stages of independence, Russia and Armenia supported each other, Russian MP,  deputy chairman of Duma’s committee on CIS Konstantin Zatulin said at the first meeting of the Lazarev Club in Yerevan

“Be it within the CIS, CSTO, EAEU and other organizations, we are very interested, because Armenia, among other things, is going through very important internal processes so that lively exchange of views should not stop in all areas,” Zatulin said.

He added that since early parliamentary elections are coming soon in Armenia, the organizers tried to avoid discussing the situation related to internal processes, focusing on permanent values – issues of peaceful life of our peoples in conditions of secure borders and protecting the interests of two peoples.

 “We love Armenia regardless of the presidents and authorities are at the helm,” Zatulin stressed.

The leaders of Armenia, the former presidents of Armenia and Artsakh, the current president of Artsakh, are invited to the meeting of the club.

“We respect the reasons for which many were unable to come,” Zatulin added.

Identity of suspected corrupt lawmaker to be disclosed after receiving necessary paperwork

Category
Politics

Authorities still don’t disclose details over the lawmaker who is said to be under a criminal investigation in a massive bribery case.

National Security Service director Artur Vanetsyan told reporters today that they will give details after officially receiving important documents.

“Wait for a brief period of time, and we will announce everything. I can’t give any information at this moment,” he said.

Earlier in October, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in parliament that a Member of Parliament is under investigation for bribery. He said that “this will be the largest bribery case in the history of the country”. Pashinyan had said that the authorities are waiting for an official response regarding a document from another country.

A1+: Armenian national team finishes its performances in League of Nations with second place (video)

In the last 6th round of the UEFA League of Nations qualifiers, the Armenian national team played a draw with the team of Liechtenstein and finished its performances in the League of Nations.

Our team scored 10 points and took the 2nd place in its group, leaving behind Macedonia with 5 points. Our team not only moved to a higher C League, but also gained the right to participate in the final tournament, where a ticket to Euro 2020 will be played.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/09/2018

                                        Friday, 

Pashinian Speaks Against Creating ‘Fake’ Oppositions

        • Naira Nalbandian

Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C) during a meeting with ethnic 
Armenians in Astana, Kazakhstan, 9Nov, 2018

Fake oppositions have eroded Armenia’s political landscape in the past two 
decades, acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said at a meeting in 
Astana with representatives of the Armenian community of Kazakhstan.

According to the Armenian leader, his government will not be taking that way. 
“For quite a long time Armenia has not had a government and an opposition with 
a mandate from the people, that’s why in Armenia people did not believe any 
one,” said Pashinian, who on November 8 attended a summit of Collective 
Security Treaty Organization member states in Kazakhstan’s capital.

“We are not going to create an artificial opposition, because it is up to the 
opposition to establish itself as a viable force. In the upcoming parliamentary 
elections the people will decide who will be the government and who will be the 
opposition,” he added.

Political analyst Armen Baghdasarian believes that it is only 
pseudo-governments that need pseudo-oppositions. In Armenia, he thinks, there 
is no such risk at the moment. Moreover, according to the analyst, the real 
struggle will be within the opposition field, as the Pashinian-led My Step 
alliance will be a clear winner.

“The former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) claims that it will be the 
only opposition. I think they are not quite honest and right, because the 
opposition is not those who deliver critical speeches. The opposition is the 
power that can really be a counterbalance and with which the public 
dissatisfied with the government will connect its hopes. Now it is obvious that 
no one in Armenia pins any hopes on the HHK,” Baghdasarian said.

The HHK has not yet made a formal decision regarding its participation in the 
snap parliamentary elections scheduled for December 9.

The party’s spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on 
Thursday that the HHK will hold a meeting on November 11 during which this 
issue will be discussed.

Political parties and alliances have until November 14 to submit their 
documents for registration in the elections.

Snap general elections were appointed in Armenia after the country’s popular 
Prime Minister Pashinian forced the parliament’s dissolution with his tactical 
resignation and two straight tactical votes in parliament that failed to elect 
a new prime minister.

Pashinian’s political team, which came to power on the wave of anti-government 
protests last spring, is tipped to win in the coming polls by a wide margin and 
form the next government.

The pro-Pashinian My Step alliance polled over 80 percent of the vote in 
September municipal elections in capital Yerevan, which is home to more than a 
third of Armenia’s population.




Syunik Governor Vows ‘Unprecedented’ Elections

        • Gayane Saribekian

Newly appointed governor of Syunik Hunan Poghosian addresses a rally in the 
province, 19Oct2018

Hunan Poghosian, a recently appointed governor of one of Armenia’s most 
crime-ridden provinces, has promised to ensure the holding of “unprecedented 
elections” in Syunik next month.

Poghosian served as first deputy chief of police during most of former 
President Serzh Sarkisian’s decade-long rule and resigned immediately after the 
change of government brought about by peaceful demonstrations in April-May.

Nikol Pashinian, the leader of the demonstrations who ousted Sarkisian to 
become Armenia’s next, prime minister, appointed Poghosian as Syunik’s governor 
in October.

The appointment prompted criticism from some human rights activists and even 
some Pashinian supporters, who accused the police general of corruption and 
human rights abuses during the previous administration.

Pashinian, however, repeatedly defended his decision, alleging “attempts to 
restore the old oligarchic logic” in Syunik. “The mountainous region bordering 
Iran should therefore be governed by a tough security officer who can bang his 
fist on the table and maintain law and order, protect civil liberties and 
guarantee free enterprise,” he said at an October 19 rally in Kapan ahead of 
local mayoral elections.

The candidate from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party was narrowly defeated in 
the subsequent vote, with the prime minister blaming “criminal forces” for the 
election loss.

Poghosian, who unlike other provincial governors who are members of Pashinian’s 
political team, is not going to run in individual races in the December 9 snap 
parliamentary elections, said his job was to ensure a proper conduct of the 
polls in the province notorious for electoral violations.

“There must be legitimate, transparent and, in all senses, unprecedented 
elections in which any eligible voter will have the opportunity to go to the 
polls and vote for the party and candidate he or she prefers,” the Syunik 
governor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.

Poghosian said he was never a party member and was not going to become one. “I 
will be of use here by ensuring that the law is observed,” he stressed.




Armenian PM To Visit Paris For WWI Armistice Centennial Events


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and French President Emmanuel 
Macron attend the national homage to French-Armenian singer-songwriter Charles 
Aznavour in Paris, October 5, 2018

Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will pay a working visit to 
France on November 10-11, his press office said on Friday.

In the French capital Pashinian is due to attend a ceremony dedicated to the 
100th anniversary of the armistice in World War I and take part in a session of 
the Paris Peace Forum.

The events will be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and will bring 
together a number of world leaders, including United States President Donald 
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Armistice of November 11, 1918 put an end to fighting on land, sea and air 
in World War I between the Allies [France, the United Kingdom, the United 
States and others] and their opponent, Germany.

It marked a victory for the Allies, with previous armistices eliminating 
Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the war.

Around 40 million soldiers and civilians were killed in the four-year war waged 
by the world’s leading powers of the time.

Armenians, then a people divided between two opposing empires – Ottoman Turkey 
and Russia – suffered severe consequences of the war.

Some 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated by the Ottoman authorities during 
the years of World War I in what many historians and more than two dozen 
governments of the world today recognize as the first genocide of the 20th 
century.

Pashinian’s visit to Paris will be his third since assuming the post of 
Armenia’s prime minister in May.

In September, Pashinian went to France for talks with Macron ahead of the 
summit of Francophonie nations that was held in Yerevan the following month and 
was attended by the French leader.

On October 5, the Armenian leader visited Paris for a national homage to 
Charles Aznavour, a world-renowned French-Armenian crooner who had died at the 
age of 94.

Pashinian attended that ceremony jointly with Macron.




Press Review



“Zhamanak” writes that the November 8 summit of the Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, in fact, confirmed the media 
publications that at least some of the members of the Russian-led security 
grouping do not want Armenia to retain its rotational post of the 
organization’s secretary-general until 2020 and want to transfer it to Belarus, 
which is next in line in alphabetical order. “This position, in particular, was 
expressed by Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who reasoned that ‘in 
any case Armenia’s quota has only one year to go and the new secretary-general 
will not even have enough time to visit all the member states in order to fully 
get down to work.’ This reasoning may seem logical, but considering the real 
nature of the CSTO, the expression ‘fully get down to work’ sounds rather 
ridiculous. The organization itself is more a formality than a 
military-political bloc, and, therefore, the post of its secretary-general is 
also a formal post,” the paper says.

On the same subject “Zhoghovurd” writes: “After Armenia recalled Yuri 
Khachaturov from the post of the CSTO secretary-general, Belarus wants to take 
over the senior leadership post at the organization. In this matter it enjoys 
the support of Kazakhstan. And Russia, whose opinion in the bloc is decisive, 
has not expressed its clear position yet. In any case, in this structure 
decisions are made in accordance with a collegial principle. And if one member 
vetoes a certain option, then the decision will not be made.” The paper says 
that while formally Armenia has the right to retain the post, “there some 
political nuances.”

Lragir.am writes: “In a new Facebook post former Defense Minister Vigen 
Sargsian suggested that [acting Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinian needs a strong 
opposition in parliament so as to be able to withstand growing pressure in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh issue. According to Sargsian, it is only possible ‘through a 
debate with a serious and experienced team to achieve supra-party consensus.’ 
Vigen Sargsian is right that it is very important when the state’s system is 
composed not only of a strong government with strong legitimacy, but also of a 
strong opposition with strong legitimacy. He is also right when he speaks about 
the need for a debate with an experienced team, implying the former ruling 
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). In this sense, the HHK has no competition, 
however hard it may be for some to admit. While retaining power through 
usurpation for nearly two decades, simply due to being a governing party the 
HHK naturally had more knowledge of foreign-policy and security issues than 
others.”

(Lilit Harutiunian)



Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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