FEB. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sarksyan is expected to win another five years in power at a presidential election on Feb. 18, media reported. A poll by Gallup, published on Feb. 9, gave Mr Sarksyan 69% of the vote compared to his nearest challenger, Raffi Hovhannisyan, with 11% of the vote.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Armenia confirmed that there will be no delay to a presidential election scheduled for Feb. 18 despite the attempted assassination of Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate. Under the election rules, Mr Hayrikyan could have asked for a two week postponement to the voting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Paris to discuss a solution to their dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. While little substantial progress was made at the one-day meeting, foreign mediators consider getting Azerbaijan and Armenia to sit across a table as positive.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gunman shot and injured Paruyr Hayrikyan, a pro-Western outsider in Armenia’s Feb. 18 presidential, close to his home in Yerevan — potentially destabilising the country.
Mr Hayrikyan was relatively lucky. The bullet lodged itself in his shoulder, missing vital organs and arteries. Doctors have said that Mr Hayrikyan’s injuries are not life-threatening and Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, has been photographed chatting to him by his hospital bedside.
The attempted murder, though, does indicate that somebody may want to destabilise the election and possibly Armenia itself.
Stability in Armenia is relatively fragile and elections act as flash-points. Rivalries bubble up, tension simmers over. In 2008, when Mr Sarksyan won power, protesters clashed with police in a central Yerevan square. Ten people died in the fighting.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Mr Hayrikyan, although conspiracy theories are flying around. Analysts have also said that if Mr Hayrikyan withdrew from the election it could delay the vote by a fortnight.
All this could potentially destabilise Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)
JAN. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia and Iran continued to move closer together, at least economically, after they announced a joint economic zone, media reported. The proposed economic zone would lie around their border area. Surrounded by arch-enemies Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia has been looking for friendly neighbours.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
JAN. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has issued an official protest note to Armenia after it emerged that dozens of ethnic Armenians who had fled a civil war in Syria were resettling in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, media reported. An estimated 6,000 ethnic Armenians who had been living mainly in Aleppo have fled to Yerevan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
JAN. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has issued an official protest note to Armenia after it emerged that dozens of ethnic Armenians who had fled a civil war in Syria were resettling in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, media reported. An estimated 6,000 ethnic Armenians who had been living mainly in Aleppo have fled to Yerevan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
JAN. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A woman gave birth to a healthy baby girl aboard an Armavia flight midway between Siberia and Yerevan. Media reported that the mother named her newborn daughter Hasmik after the Armavia stewardess who helped deliver her. Armavia is Armenia’s national airline.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
