RA NA vice speaker attends Vaclav Havel’s funeral

PanARMENIAN.Net - Vice speaker of Armenian National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov attended the funeral ceremony of former Czech President Vaclav Havel as a representative of Armenia.

With leaders from around the world attending the funeral, representatives of Turkey and Azerbaijan were not present.

Havel, who led the 1989 overthrow of communism, died on Sunday, Dec 18 aged 75.

Vaclav Havel first made his name as a playwright in the 1960s. The increased freedom brought to Czechoslovakia by the Prague Spring in 1968 allowed him to satirise the communist old guard, which won him wide public acclaim. But the Soviet invasion later that year saw his work banned and he was driven underground. He became Czechoslovakia's most famous dissident and was jailed for "anti-state activity".

In 1989 when communism fell he moved in a matter of months from being a political prisoner to president of the country. The euphoria soon faded when Slovak nationalists succeeded in their campaign for independence during 1992. This prompted Havel to resign from the presidency, but a few months later after the "velvet divorce" at the start of 1993, he was re-elected Czech president. Although he was sometimes a reluctant leader, he continued to serve as