The speaker of Armenia's parliament, Hovik Abrahamian, denies the presence of political prisoners in his country and urges critics to wait until the completion of trials of leading opposition members.
The Armenian prime minister believes the set of measures foreseen by the government will help Armenia cope with the negative consequences and minimize the impact of the continuing economic crisis in 2009. Tigran Sarkisian said more investments in infrastructure development and several large projects to be launched by the state will provide new jobs for people to offset possible redundancies elsewhere.
2008 was a year of war, increasing diplomatic activity, and a resurgent Russia in the restive South Caucasus. Two of the regions' "frozen conflicts" heated up and one showed signs of thawing as the uneasy post-Soviet status quo came unraveled.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has said a controversy over an apology by Turkish intellectuals for the mass killings of Armenians in World War I could hurt efforts to improve diplomatic ties with Armenia.
A key panel of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called for sanctions on Armenia because of the continuing imprisonment of dozens of opposition members whom it for the first time described as "political prisoners."
After violent clashes in March, seven prominent opposition figures are on trial in Yerevan on charges of seeking to overthrow the government. But for many in Armenia, the charges are regarded as highly unsubstantiated.
The village of Akner, in northern Armenia, has its share of economic trouble. There are few jobs, and locals depend on money sent home by relatives working abroad, mainly in Russia. But as the world economic crisis worsens, even that source of income is unreliable.
The Armenian government has refused to allow former President Levon Ter-Petrossian and his opposition allies to hold their upcoming conference in Yerevan's main conference hall.
Intellectuals in both Turkey and Armenia have taken steps to bring a new openness to the debate about the mass deaths of ethnic Armenians in Turkey during World War I. Yerevan says the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks is genocide, a definition that Turkey totally rejects. Now, several hundred Turkish intellectuals are personally apologizing to the Armenian nation, while Armenians are appealing to Ankara to rethink its refusal to use that one key word.
ANKARA (Reuters) -- A group of Turkish intellectuals and academics are planning to issue a public apology on the Internet for the mass killings of ethnic Armenians in World War I.
Armenia's largest opposition force is threatening to hold a conference in neighboring Georgia if the Armenian government refuses to provide a venue for the event, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.
Armenian Ombudsman Armen Harutiunian has criticized the trials of dozens of supporters of former President Levon Ter-Petrossian who were arrested following the March 1 unrest. In a press conference today, Harutiunian said his office has monitored many of those trials and found that prosecutors failed to come up with compelling evidence of their accusations.
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