Defiant Opposition Boycotts Armenia Leader's Inauguration

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on Tuesday took oath for a second term in a grand inauguration ceremony boycotted by the opposition who defiantly held a rival event of their own.

Sarkisian won February elections in the ex-Soviet state but the second placed candidate Raffi Hovannisian alleged mass violations and still insists that he was the true victor.

While Sarkisian was sworn in at a ceremony at a vast sports complex in Yerevan attended by the Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II, Hovannisian held a so-called "inauguration of the new Armenia" outdoors in central Yerevan.

The event held by the U.S.-born Hovannisian, who used to practice as a lawyer in Los Angeles, rallied some 10,000 people who chanted "Raffi is the president" in Yerevan's Freedom Square.

Meanwhile, the president was sworn in by placing his hand on a priceless seventh century New Testament manuscript specially brought from the Matenadaran national library in Yerevan.

"To be the leader of a nation with such a great historical and cultural foundation is an extraordinary honor. In this solemn moment I promise to uphold this honor," Sarkisian said.

He said that "economic progress" would be the priority task for his new five-year term with a policy based on battling unemployment, poverty and the desire of Armenians to move abroad.

Sarkisian, a shrewd former military officer in power since 2008, won the February 18 polls in the small Caucasus mountains state, nestled between Turkey and Iran, with 58.6 percent of the vote.

Hovannisian trailed in distant second with 36.7 percent of votes.

The Hovannisian camp refuses to recognize the results but so far there has been no repeat of the violence that marked the 2008 vote which brought Sarkisian to power when 10 people died in clashes with police.

"From now on I will not acknowledge these illegal authorities, I will not submit myself to their deceitful laws," Hovannisian told the crowds in central Yerevan.

"We swear that we will continue to fight together and we will not get tired," he added.

A hard core of several hundred protesters chanting "Serzhik go!" in reference to Sarkisian then sought to march on his residence but were forced to turn back at a police roadblock.

Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus media institute, predicted tensions would continue ahead of elections for Yerevan mayor on May 5 but would not slip into deadly violence.

"The turbulence will last until May 5 but there will not be a repeat of 2008," the analyst told Agence France Presse, adding that a vanquished opponent's refusal to admit defeat was becoming a tradition of Armenian politics.

All Armenia's main opposition forces are planning on taking part in the May 5 local polls in Yerevan and have already started an election campaign with slogans of defeating Sarkisian by taking Yerevan.

In his inauguration speech, Sarkisian also issued a strong warning to neighbor Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorny-Karabakh which is controlled by Yerevan-backed Armenian separatists after a bloody post-Soviet war.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, sitting on a huge defense budget thanks to oil and gas exports, has never ruled out retaking the territory by force.

But Sarkisian said: "We do not want war but at the same time we are ready to resist any challenge. For those who have not understood -- any challenge," he said.

Sarkisian was born in Nagorny-Karabakh itself and derives much of his popularity from a strongman image as a veteran of the war with Azerbaijan who held top military posts during the conflict.

The 1990s war between Armenia and Azerbaijan left 30,000 people dead. Despite a 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have still not signed a peace deal and deadly exchanges of fire are common.