Thursday, February 16, 2012

Armenia

U.S. Ambassador To Armenia Calls Turkey Deal 'Transformative'

Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia

Multimedia

Video

Istanbul: Where East Meets West

TEXT SIZE - +

October 12, 2009

YEREVAN -- U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch has told RFE/RL's Armenian Service that the country's rapprochement with Turkey is a "significant step forward" and a "transformative" development for the region.

In addition to opening diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries, she said it is "vital for Armenia's security" to open the border because it would bring both countries substantial economic benefits.

She added that because the historic Turkish-Armenian agreement has been controversial in Armenia and in its diaspora communities abroad -- in the United States in particular -- signing it is a "bold foreign policy move both by President [Serzh] Sarkisian and the Turkish leadership."

She said it is in Armenia's interest to "move forward on Nagorno-Karabakh," but emphasized that normalization with Turkey and Karabakh are separate issues.

President Serzh Sarkisian has promised fair elections

Prospect Of Vote-Rigging Overshadows Armenian Election

The Armenian parliamentary elections due in May will not simply be a struggle between rival political parties with diverging priorities and platforms. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Former KGB head Leonid Tibilov is a presidential hopeful.

Repeat South Ossetian Election Campaign Gathers Momentum

The run-up to the repeat election on March 24 for a new de facto president of Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia bears an uncanny resemblance to last November's election campaign. More