Armenia elects former minister Khachatrian as president
Vahagn Khachaturyan has become Armenia's fifth president since 1991.
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New Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan
Following his predecessor's surprise resignation in January, Armenia's parliament elected on Thursday high-tech industry minister Vahagn Khachaturyan as the country's new president.
In a vote boycotted by opposition parties, 71 MPs from the ruling Civil Contract party approved Khachaturyan's bid for a seven-year term.
Ahead of the vote, Khachaturyan said that "our region must become a platform for cooperation."
"We must forge friendly relations with neighbors, live in peace, and develop our country within the framework of this logic," he added.
Armenia fought and lost a war with its neighbor Azerbaijan over control of the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020.
Armenia ceded swaths of territory it had controlled for decades after a conflict that killed over 6,500 people and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
Armen Sarkisian, Khachaturyan's predecessor, resigned on January 23.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan appointed him minister of the high-technology industry last year. He is not a member of any political party.