Armenia elects former minister Khachatrian as president

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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.