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Press Review


(Saturday, November 22)

“Zhamanak-Yerevan” attempts to gauge the National Assembly’s ‘moral level’ and writes: “And what do the nation’s elite think now when one of them spoke about a sniper who shot at and killed unarmed peaceful protesters on March 1?”

“The Prosecutor’s Office today accuses three pro-opposition members of parliament of wrongdoing that they never did, also holding them responsible for 10 innocent victims. And now there comes the revelation of a sniper. And if the National Assembly gives its protection to this sniper, it will mean that the legislative body is being guided by a ‘hitman’s logic’ itself. If so, blessed are Sasun [Mikaelian], Myasnik [Malkhasian] and Hakob [Hakobian], who are, indeed, freemen but simply are in temporary imprisonment now. Blessed are they because they are not in this parliament…,” the paper comments.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” prints Samvel Nikoyan’s controversial interview to a Romanian newspaper. In the parts of the interview that do not concern police actions, the pro-government lawmaker who head the parliament’s ad hoc commission conducting the probe into the post-election unrest says: “After the March 1 events, the opposition in any case tried to continue its struggle based on force and had hoped to achieve its goals this autumn. And their goal is to make a revolution. They call this revolution a ‘song-and-dance’ revolution. It was said by them, not my words. While it had succeeded in Georgia and Ukraine, in Armenia it failed.”

“The March 1 events caused the authorities to work with greater accuracy and discipline. It had an essential impact on the formation of the new government. They now can’t find a single minister in Armenia whom they can accuse of corruption or immoral behavior in everyday life. There is no such minister now and this is the result of the March 1 events,” Nikoyan continues.

The member of the governing Republican Party of Armenia also criticizes the Council of Europe for acting like a structure set up primarily for the opposition. “But it is the state and not only one part of this state, i.e. the opposition, that is a member of the Council of Europe,” concludes Nikoyan.

“Aravot” publishes an interview with a prominent Karabakh war veteran and current leader of an influential veteran organization, Yerkrapah.

Manvel Grigoryan, a top army general who was fired last spring for his presumed links with the opposition, shares with the paper his displeasure with current Armenian diplomacy.

“We had waged a patriotic war and won, and Armenian diplomacy is not in a position to reaffirm this victory. If the diplomats prove so untalented that there will be a threat of renewed war, they will again turn to Yerkrapah for help….”

“As far as I can understand, the starting point or the highest value for the international community is peace. And why don’t we try to explain in plain terms that the Armenian side’s signing the ceasefire agreement in 1994 was the most serious concession in the name of peace? In May 1994, when the ceasefire was signed, Azerbaijan’s army was in a totally demoralized condition. We could have seized Nakhijevan, Yevlakh, Kirovabad without firing a single shot..,” the beleaguered general says.

“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” returns to the subject of consultations on Karabakh held by President Serzh Sarkisian and leaders of about five dozen political parties of Armenia on Thursday.

“After ten years of regularly claimed ‘brilliant diplomatic victories’ achieved in negotiations held from ‘the position of a winner’ a document is signed as a result of which the whole government elite is in panic and President Serzh Sarkisian has to calm them down by explaining that the document ‘is something insignificant’,” the paper writes sardonically. “That is, as a result of these ‘winning’ policies, we have now reached a point when any signed document gives us joy only when we can avoid fulfilling its requirements. Though, it is not yet known whether we can do that now or cannot.”

“Hayots Ashkhar” talked to Chairman of the Armenian Sociological Association Gevorg Poghosian, who presented his latest researches: “The surveys conducted in Armenia and Karabakh recently show that 95 percent of the population cannot imagine Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. They find that Karabakh can be independent, part of Armenia, even part of the Commonwealth of Independent States as an independent entity, but in all cases outside Azerbaijan’s control. It is hard to believe, but there is also a certain part of the population, about 2-5 percent, that does not mind Karabakh’s being part of Azerbaijan with some high status, for instance a federal republic.”

The sociologist adds: “Generally, societies in both Armenia and Azerbaijan are psychologically prepared for compromises. But the problem is that we have our own idea of a compromise and Azerbaijan has its own, which is totally different from ours.”

“Azg” presents the preparations of Turkish political circles for the meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey planned for Monday. According to the Armenian daily, it turns out Ali Babacan had already announced that a new trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey would be on the agenda. However, according to him, “the meeting must be prepared well, otherwise there is no point in meeting just for the purpose of posing for photo cameras.”


(Aghasi Yenokian)
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