Explaining Armenia: An insider's view
The President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP) resigned after his power ministers expressed their disagreement with his policies, several of his supporters quit, and the ruling coalition in the parliament collapsed. The apparent point of disagreement was the fate of Nagorno Karabakh, but there are several other causes which reinforced the main rift among the power elites and made the populace tacitly or overtly supportive of the ‘soft’ coup: rampant poverty, corruption and fixed parliamentary (1995) and presidential (1996) elections....