PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TOUGH TEST FOR ARMENIA
The Associated Press published an article on elections in Armenia.
The article says Armenians vote for a new president today amid growing unease that Kosovo`s declaration of independence could increase secessionist pressure in breakaway territories in the Caucasus and other former Soviet regions.
“The election could determine how far Armenia is willing to go to avoid renewed conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The struggle over that region is one of several so-called "frozen conflicts" — which also include the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova and Georgia`s South Ossetia and Abkhazia territories — that could heat up after Kosovo`s parliament declared independence from Serbia on Sunday.
Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas in Azerbaijan have been controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists since a 1994 cease-fire ended six years of full-scale war that killed 30,000 people and displaced more than 1 million.
The Armenian government says Nagorno-Karabakh should be recognized as a sovereign state, while Azerbaijan says it will never cede its territory.
Russia, traditionally Armenia`s key partner in the region, has tried to remain neutral in the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it has close ties to separatist governments in several breakaway regions, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The election pits Armenia`s powerful Prime Minister, Serge Sarkisian, against former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, who led the country through the first painful years of independence from the Soviet Union and the devastating war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two candidates differ sharply in their approach to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr. Sarkisian, a native of the region and a decorated war hero, appears less flexible than Mr. Ter-Petrosian, who was forced to resign in 1998 after advocating concessions. Mr. Ter-Petrosian has hinted that he could seek a compromise.
"My position is to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as soon as possible - having the political will to resolve this conflict as soon as possible," Ter-Petrosian told a news conference Sunday.”
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