The elections aren’t for a while, but. . .

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER DOES FOREIGN POLICY U-TURN
National Accord Party (AMK) Chairman Artashes Geghamian told a party conference in Yerevan on 19 February that the United States “must be the main pillar of democratization and strengthening” of Armenia, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported. By contrast, during the 2003 presidential election campaign, Geghamian had argued for closer relations with Russia and Armenia’s accession to the Russia-Belarus Union. Geghamian finished in third place in the first round with some 17 percent of the vote. Geghamian also announced on 19 February that the AMK will soon launch a new campaign aimed at forcing the resignation of the present Armenian leadership, but he implied that he will not necessarily coordinate that new campaign with the Artarutiun opposition bloc as he did during last year’s opposition protests. Arminfo as cited by Groong on 19 February quoted Geghamian as criticizing Artarutiun and its leader, Stepan Demirchian, and as hinting that the AMK might abandon the opposition’s yearlong boycott of parliament proceedings. LF

ARMENIAN COALITION PARTNER CALLS FOR FASTER DEMOCRATIZATION, ELECTION REFORM
Armen Rustamian, a senior member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun (HHD), one of the two junior partners in the three-party coalition government, warned on 21 February that failure to amend election legislation to ensure that the local elections due in October are truly free and fair could result in armed clashes between supporters of rival candidates, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported. He said such clashes could be as serious as the 4 February gunfight in Yerevan in which one person was killed and several were injured (see “RFE/RL Caucasus Report,” 18 February 2005). LF

More on Armenian revolutionary activity here. (Via: The Argus)