ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER REPLACED.

Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian resigned yesterday "at his own request," and President Levon Ter-Petrosian appointed Armen Sarkisian to the post on the same day. Sarkisian, 43, a former Physics professor at Yerevan University, has served since 1992 as ambassador to Britain and, concurrently, to several other West European countries. Since 1993 he has held the post of coordinator of Armenia’s envoys to all European countries.

No reasons were cited for Bagratian’s release, but it had been expected as part of a comprehensive personnel reshuffle announced by Ter-Petrosian during his recent campaign for reelection. Bagratian had been prime minister since 1993. Ter-Petrosian changed the prime minister without waiting for the Constitutional Court’s verdict, due this month, on the united opposition’s petition to invalidate the recent presidential election because of official fraud. (Noyan-Tapan, Western agencies, November 4)

Tajik Opposition Offensive Opens Corridor from Afghanistan.