Free Republic

As Armenia's first post-Soviet president in the 1990s, Levon Ter-Petrossian brought in top officials from Nagorno-Karabakh to serve in his government. Today, as an opposition leader, Ter-Petrossian is the most outspoken critic of what he and his allies call the "Karabakh clan," lambasting his former proteges for raiding the country's treasury, strangling the economy, and stifling democracy. The main targets of the broadside have been outgoing President Robert Kocharian and his preferred successor, Serzh Sarkisian, the current prime minister who defeated Ter-Petrossian in Armenia's February 19 presidential election. Both Kocharian and Sarkisian hail from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-controlled and populated enclave...

Another sign indicating that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is disintegrating emerged in the Commonwealth summit held at Kazan. Turkmenistan is preparing to leave the 15 year old CIS by changing its status. Georgian President Mihail Saakashvili revealed that in the last hours of the summit, Turkmenistan government communicated its request for a change in its CIS permanent membership status. In the case that Turkmenistan breaks away from the CIS, it will be the first time since the three Baltic republics that a Central Asian Soviet will have obtained full independence....

PARIS (AFP) - The Armenian community in France and elsewhere in Europe held solemn masses, marches and memorials on Sunday to mark the 90th anniversary of mass killings by Ottoman Turks which a growing number of countries have recognised as a genocide. The Parisian landmark of Notre Dame cathedral hosted a requiem mass Sunday and many other gatherings took place across the city. Some 350,000 ethnic Armenians live in France. The mass was followed by a meeting at an Armenian monument where on Friday French President Jacques Chirac and Armenian President Robert Kocharian placed a wreath. French Socialist Party leader...