Armenia Holding Early Parliamentary Elections After War with Azerbaijan
Voice of America
Armenians are casting their ballots in early parliamentary elections on Sunday, after the country’s defeat in a war with Azerbaijan last year over the secessionist Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
In an acting capacity since April 25, reformist Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of the Civil Contract party called the snap election in hopes of renewing his mandate but he is in a tight race with former president Robert Kocharyan, 66, of the Armenia Alliance bloc. The vote is being monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and closely watched by Russia. Pashinyan, 46, caused a public uproar for signing a Moscow-brokered peace deal with Azerbaijan in November, after six weeks of fighting between the two former Soviet republics in which more than 6,500 people were killed.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.