Armenia: Government

Principal Government Officials

Chief of State: President Serzh Sargsian
Head of Government: Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian

Armenians voted overwhelmingly for independence in a September 1991 referendum, followed by a presidential election in October 1991 that gave 83% of the vote to Levon Ter-Petrossian. Ter-Petrossian had been elected head of government in 1990, when the Armenian National Movement defeated the Communist Party. Ter-Petrossian was re-elected in 1996 in a disputed election. Following public demonstrations against Ter-Petrossian's policies on the predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh that is located within Azerbaijan, the President resigned under pressure in January 1998 and was replaced by Prime Minister Robert Kocharian, who was subsequently elected President in March 1998. Following the October 27, 1999 assassination in Parliament of Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian, Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchian, and six other officials, a period of political instability ensued during which an opposition headed by elements of the former Armenian National Movement government attempted unsuccessfully to force Kocharian to resign. Riding out the unrest, Kocharian was later reelected in March 2003 in a contentious election that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the U.S. Government deemed to have fallen short of international standards.

The Government of Armenia's stated aim is to build a Western-style parliamentary democracy as the basis of its form of government. However, international observers have been critical of the conduct of national elections in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2008, as well as the constitutional referendum of 2005. The new constitution in 2005 increased the power of the legislative branch and allows for more independence of the judiciary; in practice, however, both branches remain subject to political pressure from the executive branch, which retains considerably greater power than its counterparts in most European countries.

The unicameral National Assembly has a total of 131 seats: 90 seats are elected by proportional representation (party list), and 41 are single mandate districts. Armenia held its most recent parliament elections in 2007, when the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) won 33 percent of the votes cast, followed by Prosperous Armenia (15 percent), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) (13 percent), Rule of Law (7 percent), and the Heritage Party (6 percent). This election as well was marred by irregularities. The RPA and Prosperous Armenia joined to form a governing coalition which secured an absolute majority of parliament seats. The ARF negotiated a cooperation agreement with the governing coalition in exchange for ministerial positions, but declined to join the coalition formally, instead reserving the right to support its own candidate for the February 2008 presidential election.

Following the 2008 presidential elections the Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia, the Rule of Law, and the ARF signed a new coalition agreement on March 21, 2008. The ARF dropped out of the coalition in April 2009 citing differences over the conduct of foreign policy.

Armenia held presidential elections on February 19, 2008. While originally deemed by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to be “mostly in line” with OSCE standards, the elections were later seen to be marred by credible claims of ballot stuffing, intimidation (including beatings) of poll workers and proxies, vote buying, and other irregularities. Recounts were requested, but ODIHR observers noted “shortcomings in the recount process, including discrepancies and mistakes, some of which raise questions over the impartiality of the [electoral commissions] concerned.”

Mass protests followed the disputed vote. For 10 days, large crowds of pro-opposition demonstrators gathered in Yerevan’s downtown Freedom Square. Police and security forces entered Freedom Square early in the morning on March 1, 2008, ostensibly to investigate reports of hidden weapons caches. This operation turned into a forced dispersal of demonstrators from Freedom Square by massed riot police. Following the clearing of Freedom Square, clashes erupted in the afternoon between massed demonstrators and security personnel, and continued throughout the day and evening, leading to ten deaths and hundreds of injuries. President Kocharian decreed a 20-day state of emergency in Yerevan late on March 1, which sharply curtailed freedom of media and assembly. Dozens of opposition supporters were jailed in the wake of the violence, in proceedings that many international watchdog groups have criticized as politically motivated. Armenia's media freedom climate and freedom of assembly remained poor overall, though somewhat improved after the state of emergency was lifted. In June 2009 and May 2011, President Sargsian proposed and the Parliament approved two general amnesties which resulted in the release from jail of all those detained in connection with the March 2008 events. In the spring of 2011, the leading opposition group was also able to resume -- after a three-year prohibition -- the holding of authorized rallies in Yerevan’s Freedom Square. In April 2011, President Sargsian called for a more meticulous examination of the violence that followed the post-elections protests in 2008.

Upcoming elections will be held in May 2012 for the Armenian National Assembly and February 2013 for the Presidency.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Armenia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Neighborhood Program of the EU, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization (BSEC), the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Trade Organization.

Turkey-Armenia Relations
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 as a show of support for Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. On October 10, 2009, the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Armenia signed normalization protocols that called for the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border, establishing diplomatic relations, and the creation of a number of sub-commissions addressing bilateral issues. However, the protocols have not yet been ratified by either country, and Armenia formally suspended parliamentary consideration of the protocols in April 2010. The Armenian Government stressed its willingness to reactivate the process “when there is a proper environment in Turkey and there is leadership in Ankara ready to reengage in the normalization process.”

Nagorno-Karabakh
In 1988, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, voted to secede and join Armenia. This act was the catalyst that led Armenia and Azerbaijan into a full-scale armed conflict that claimed the lives of over 30,000 people on both sides. Armenian support for the separatists led to an economic embargo by Azerbaijan, which has had a negative impact on Armenia's foreign trade and made imports of food and fuel, three-quarters of which previously transited Azerbaijan under Soviet rule, more expensive.

Peace talks in early 1993 were disrupted by the seizure of Azerbaijan's Kelbajar district by Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian forces and the forced evacuation of thousands of ethnic Azeris. Turkey in protest then followed with an embargo of its own against Armenia. A cease-fire was declared between Azerbaijani and Armenian/Nagorno-Karabakh forces in 1994 and has been maintained by both sides since then in spite of occasional shooting along the line of contact. All Armenian governments have thus far resisted domestic pressure to recognize the self-proclaimed independence of the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic," while at the same time announcing they would not accept any peace accords that returned the enclave to Azerbaijani rule. Approximately 572,000 of the estimated 800,000 ethnic Azeris who fled during the Karabakhi offensives still live as internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan (according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, quoting Azerbaijani Government statistics, June 2008 ), while roughly 4,700 of 360,000 ethnic Armenians who fled Azerbaijan since 1988 remain refugees.

Negotiations to peacefully resolve the conflict have been ongoing since 1992 under the aegis of the Minsk Group of the OSCE. The Minsk Group is co-chaired by the U.S., France, and Russia. Negotiations have intensified since 2004. Ambassador Robert Bradtke became U.S. Co-Chair in 2009.

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