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Press Review


“Azg” says that the Armenian coalition government looked shaky from the outset, but nobody expected to see first cracks emerging in it so early. The paper says the coalition risks replicating the Miasnutyun alliance which swept to power in 1999 before falling apart a year later. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), it says, is the most disgruntled of the governing parties. But Dashnaktsutyun is unlikely to leave the coalition as it realizes that the Republican and Orinats Yerkir parties would still command the support of the parliament majority. The Dashnaks, according to “Azg,” will instead act like an “internal opposition” inside the regime.

“What happened to Miasnutyun is now happening to the coalition,” agrees “Golos Armenii.” And although the three parties keep telling the public that their alliance is viable, few take those assurances seriously. The party leaders are now making contradictory statements, exposing their differences. The paper also believes that Orinats Yerkir always backs the stronger party in any dispute and will therefore side with the Republicans if they clash with the Dashnaks. The coalition is already in crisis, “Golos Armenii” concludes.

“France is a pivotal point in Robert Kocharian’s political career,” “Aravot” comments on the Armenian president’s ongoing visit to Paris. The paper recalls that Kocharian paid his first official visit to France in late 1997, when he was prime minister. “That was a time when the first president of Armenia publicly laid out his ideas of a Karabakh settlement that were highly realistic and very favorable for our country,” it says. “But the then political and intellectual elite, which was blinded by Dashnak ideas, made an uproar as if that was a treason.” The West, the paper claims, chose Kocharian as Levon Ter-Petrosian’s successor in the hope that he will succeed in selling a compromise peace formula to the Armenian public. However, the conflict has remained unresolved since then.

“Aravot” speculates that Jacques Chirac told Kocharian on Wednesday that he can no longer delay a Karabakh peace accord. “The solution will definitely be less favorable than it was in 1997,” the paper claims. “We have exhausted internal and external resources for resisting unfavorable solutions. But our government will accept it. There is no other option.”

“Armenia must recognize Turkey’s territorial integrity,” a senior member of the opposition Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party, Suren Sureniants, tells “Haykakan Zhamanak.” Sureniants says the long-standing Armenian hopes for getting back ancient Armenian lands in modern-day eastern Turkey are “not only an obstacle to the development of the Republic of Armenia but also destructive for its existence.”

Citing unnamed government sources, “Aravot” reports that Kocharian plans to merge the Armenian police and the Ministry for Local Government into a single agency. The paper says it will be headed by the current head of the ministry, Hovik Abrahamian.

(Hrach Melkumian)
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