Presidency
After his predecessor Levon Ter-Petrossian was ousted as President, Kocharyan was elected Armenia's second President on March 30, 1998, defeating his main rival, Karen Demirchyan, in an early presidential election marred by irregularities and violations by both sides as reported by international electoral observers. Complaints included that Kocharyan had not been an Armenian citizen for ten years as required by the constitution., even though it would have been impossible for him to be a 10 year citizen of a republic that was less than 7 years old; however, the Armenian constitution recognized the Armenian SSR as it predecessor state.
During his presidency, several opposition leaders in the Armenian Parliament and the Prime Minister of Armenia were killed by gunmen in an episode known as the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting. And Kocharyan himself negotiated with the terrorists to release the MP hostages.
Read more about this topic: Robert Kocharyan
Famous quotes containing the word presidency:
“... how often the Presidency has simply meant that a man shall be abused, distrusted, and worked to death while he is filling the great office, and that he should drop into unmerited oblivion when he has left the White House ...”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (18261903)
“I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. Youve got to just stand there and take it.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)
“Some of the offers that have come to me would never have come if I had not been President. That means these people are trying to hire not Calvin Coolidge, but a former President of the United States. I cant make that kind of use of the office.... I cant do anything that might take away from the Presidency any of its dignity, or any of the faith people have in it.”
—Calvin Coolidge (18721933)