Yearbook 2007
Armenia. In March, Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan died
after a heart attack. Former Secretary of Defense Serzh
Sarkisian was appointed new head of government for the
coalition between the Republican Party and the United
Workers' Party.
In May, Armenia's fourth parliamentary elections were
held since independence. The opposition made a poor choice
and initially refused to accept the election result, but
according to election observers from the OSCE, voting was
conducted in a clearly better way than in previous
elections. There were only a few cases of documented
cheating and the election was largely international in
standard, according to a report by the OSCE.
The election was a huge success for the ruling Republican
Party, which took one-third of the vote and nearly doubled
its number of seats to 64 of Parliament's 131. Republicans
and Prosperous Armenia formed a new coalition under Serzh
Sarkisian's leadership. Prosperous Armenia is led by the
rocky oligarch and former world champion in arm wrestling,
Gagik Tsarukian.
During the year, the first part of a gas pipeline was
opened from Iran to Armenia. The project is intended to
reduce Armenia's dependence on Russian energy.
According to
CountryAAH, the historical issue of Turkish genocide on Armenians
during the First World War left a mark on Armenia's
international relations during the year. In January,
Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul was
assassinated by Turkish extremist nationalists because of
his demand for Turkey to allow genocide. A. Armenia strongly
condemned the murder of Dink and the President of the
Armenian Parliament said that Turkey should not even dream
of joining the EU. A group suspected of the murder was
brought to trial, but Dink's family claimed that the Turkish
authorities were also involved.
In the United States, the Armenian lobby succeeded in
proposing a resolution in Congress, stating that Armenians
in Turkey were subjected to genocide in 1915. President
George W. Bush opposed the resolution and warned that it
would damage US relations in particular. Turkey, which
admits that many Armenians died but refuses to admit
genocide. The resolution was approved by the Foreign Affairs
Committee and sparked anger in Turkey, threatening reprisals
against its NATO ally. The vote in the House of
Representatives was postponed during the autumn.
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