Armenia in 1997Article Free Pass
Area: 29,743 sq km (11,484 sq mi). The disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with an area of 4,400 sq km (1,700 sq mi), and has been part of Azerbaijan since 1923.
Population (1997 est.): officially 3,773,000; actually about 3,000,000 (plus 150,000 in Nagorno-Karabakh)
Chief of state: President Levon Ter-Petrosyan
Head of government: Prime Ministers Armen Sarkisyan and, from March 20, Robert Kocharyan
The unresolved Karabakh conflict continued to have an impact on both domestic politics and foreign policy in Armenia in 1997. In March Pres. Levon Ter-Petrosyan appointed as prime minister Robert Kocharyan, president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic, who embarked on a crackdown on corruption and tax evasion. Powerful Yerevan Mayor Vano Siradegyan was elected chairman of the ruling Pan-Armenian National Movement in July. Although Kocharyan and other senior officials met with representatives of the banned main opposition Dashnak (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) party in April to discuss conditions for its reinstatement, the trial of 31 Dashnak members on charges of terrorism continued. Ter-Petrosyan’s announcement in September that Armenia had accepted a peace plan for Nagorno-Karabakh that required major unnamed compromises from Armenia provoked calls by the opposition for his resignation and new parliamentary elections.
In May several tiny left-wing political groups began lobbying for Armenia’s accession to the Russia-Belarus union, collecting over a million signatures in favour. Ter-Petrosyan and Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin signed a major treaty on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance in August. A second agreement on supplying Russian gas to Armenia and its export via Armenia to Turkey was also signed.
This article updates Armenia, history of.
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