On The Campaign Trail: Tavoush Region
Ijevan, Tavoush Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008
With a 7.45am start and the temperature well below zero, actually -7 to be precise, it was hardly the nicest of times to accompany other journalists on their way to cover the pre-election campaign of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun’s Vahan Hovannisyan in the northeastern Tavoush region of Armenia.
True, more snow had fallen in the night and Yerevan looked magnificent illuminated only by street lights in a city center devoid of traffic and pedestrians, but it would have been nicer to depart a little later. As it happened, the two vans taking film crews left the ARF-D’s central headquarters an hour later than scheduled because timekeeping is unfortunately rarely observed here.
The early start was conditioned by the need to transport Hovannisian’s pre-election campaign materials as well as the billboards necessary for the event in the same vans. Still, it gave me time to grab a bite to eat at a local cafe and walk around a little.
The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.
