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Press Review


“Hayots Ashkhar” says that the opposition campaign for a referendum of confidence in President Robert Kocharian has attracted scant public attention suggesting that the idea is not backed by the overwhelming majority of ordinary Armenians. As for the boycott of parliament sessions, it is primarily intended for the outside world. The paper says the opposition leaders are thereby trying to invite European organizations’ “interference” in the country’s political affairs and reiterates its view that the opposition campaign is “incited from abroad.”

“Representatives of the [ruling] coalition insist that we are not in a political crisis. But how would they explain their concern over the opposition’s absence from the parliament and attempts to bring the opposition back?” Answering this question by “Hayots Ashkhar,” the parliamentary leader of the Republican Party (HHK), Galust Sahakian, says it is the opposition who claims the existence of such a crisis. Sahakian says that while exploiting people’s socioeconomic problems the opposition suggests no alternative solutions to them. “They only talk about rapid regime change,” he complains. He also cautions against “far-reaching conclusions” drawn from the HHK’s uneasy relationship with one of its two coalition partners, the Dashnaktsutyun party.

“One can understand the Republican Party’s and the prime minister’s fury with Hrant Markarian’s speech at the opening of the Dashnaktsutyun congress,” writes “Aravot.” “Indeed, it is insulting when only one [force] is picked as a scapegoat for the joint falsification of both the presidential and parliamentary elections. We remember very well how they ‘helped’ Robert Kocharian in the first round [of the 2003 presidential election], the first anniversary of which is incidentally marked tomorrow. By justifying the barbaric acts committed one year ago all those [pro-presidential] parties and individuals created a breeding ground for the repeat of the same thing in the parliamentary elections…They are all worth each other.” Dashnaktsutyun is therefore wrong to portray itself as an honest force that was a victim of government-sanctioned vote rigging, according to “Aravot.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” say the standoff between the government forces and the opposition is devoid of any ideological basis and he who displays greater “courage and determination” will prevail in it. “Robert Kocharian is not an intellectual but understands one thing. He understands that he is doing politics, and doing politics means being ready for any strike.” His every political maneuver is carefully calculated. “Kocharian has a mentality that is unacceptable and not understandable for the people of Armenia,” the paper says. “It is with that mentality that he fills up the vacuum of his political principles, introducing oriental and mobster-like values into political life.”

“Azg” claims that the devaluation of the U.S. dollar over the past year has made Armenians poorer. The paper cites some economists as saying that the strengthening of the euro is having negative effects on the “dollarized” Armenian economy. But it predicts that “the situation will stabilize soon.”

(Vache Sarkisian)
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