By empty (4/18/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The protocol on ending dual citizenship of Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation was published in the Turkmen media. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov signed the measure on 10 April during the latter\'s state visit to Moscow. At the time, Putin said dual citizenship is no longer needed because those ethnic Russians who wanted to leave Turkmenistan have already done so.

By empty (4/17/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The presidential press service said in a statement released on 17 April that Robert Kocharian will not comply with a Constitutional Court\'s proposal of 16 April to hold a \"referendum of confidence\" to allay widespread doubts about the validity of the February-March presidential election. That proposal was contained in the Constitutional Court\'s ruling rejecting an appeal by defeated presidential candidate Stepan Demirchian that the poll be annulled in the light of alleged procedural, legal, and constitutional violations. Vahan Hovannisian, one of the leaders of the Yerevan Bureau of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun which backs Kocharian, argued on 17 April that the Constitutional Court\'s proposal to hold a \"referendum of confidence\" contradicts its simultaneous ruling that the presidential election outcome is legal and valid.

By empty (4/17/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Constitutional Court rejected on 16 April a lawsuit by defeated presidential candidate Stepan Demirchian claiming that the February-March presidential ballot was marred by legal, constitutional, and procedural violations and should therefore be declared void, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. But the court acknowledged Demirchian\'s claim that the official returns from some 40 constituencies are \"not credible\" due to ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities. The court ordered the Prosecutor-General\'s Office to launch a criminal investigation into those irregularities.