A senior police officer in Yerevan has gone into hiding to evade prosecution on bribery charges, law-enforcement authorities announced on Tuesday.
Lieutenant-General Alik Sargsian, the chief of the Armenian police, was unexpectedly sacked without an official explanation on Tuesday amid reports that President Serzh Sarkisian is planning major personnel changes in the state apparatus.
Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetian on Thursday pointedly declined to deny mounting rumors that he will step down less than one year after taking over the municipal administration.
A court in Yerevan on Wednesday allowed law-enforcement bodies to keep an opposition activist in jail for two more months as the Armenian authorities showed no signs of bowing to sustained pressure from the country’s leading opposition force.
Ignoring police warnings, hundreds of people spent their third consecutive night in Yerevan’s Liberty Square on Monday as Armenia’s main opposition force continued its nonstop street protests aimed at clinching more concessions from the government.
With Armenian politicians mostly remaining dismissive of the idea of any big changes coming in the former Soviet republic after the announced political reshuffle in Russia, local analysts and media have speculated about potentially wider implications of the back-to-Putin mode in the Kremlin.
Armenia’s ruling party has effectively brushed aside the latest opposition demands for snap elections calling them a ‘political gimmick’ ahead of next year’s parliamentary polls.
Armenia’s governing coalition indicated on Monday it still has no intention to expedite the release of an opposition activist and thus pave the way for renewed negotiations with the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK).
Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian urged the United States to take the lead in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in late 2008 less than a month after accusing Washington of seeking excessive Armenian concessions to Azerbaijan, according to newly disclosed U.S. diplomatic records.
The Armenian authorities strongly denied on Tuesday a senior U.S. diplomat’s reported claims that the February 2008 presidential election was rigged in favor of Serzh Sarkisian.
The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) will likely have no more than 10 seats in Armenia’s next 131-member parliament, a deputy chairman of President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) predicted on Wednesday.
A senior pro-government lawmaker who investigated the 2008 postelection unrest in Yerevan on Tuesday voiced skepticism over the success of a renewed criminal inquiry that was ordered by President Serzh Sarkisian earlier this year.
A senior U.S. official has reportedly expressed concern about a “dangerous stalemate” in the long-running international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian Apostolic Church has welcomed the decision of state authorities in neighboring Georgia to grant its diocese a legal status.
Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian told supporters that Armenians will not be imprisoned for their political activities anymore as he welcomed the release of his two prominent loyalists from prison over the weekend.
The Armenian parliament began debating on Wednesday President Serzh Sarkisian’s proposal to declare a general amnesty that will lead to the release of virtually all opposition members controversially imprisoned by the authorities.
An Armenian law-enforcement body said on Monday that it has started questioning witnesses as part of its renewed investigation into 2008 post-election clashes in Yerevan which was ordered by President Serzh Sarkisian late last month.
The Armenian authorities on Tuesday formally allowed the Armenian National Congress (HAK) to hold a rally in a key Yerevan square this Friday, fulfilling another demand voiced by the opposition alliance.
An Armenian opposition activist and former boxer controversially arrested last month walked free from court on Tuesday despite being convicted of assaulting police officers during an opposition rally in Yerevan.
Armenia could face a new bout of political upheaval if its government fails to hold “genuinely democratic” elections and implement other reforms, according to two senior representatives of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).
Բեռնել ավելին
