“Golos Armenii” says further political developments in Armenia will follow a “most unfavorable scenario” for the Armenian opposition. The Russian-language paper sees a “negligible” likelihood of fresh snap presidential or parliamentary elections in Armenia. At the same time, it says, Levon Ter-Petrosian and his entourage will face no challenges from other opposition forces, including the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party of Raffi Hovannisian.
“Zhamanak” disputes claims that the failure by Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) to form an alliance with Zharangutyun and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) would spell the end of the former president’s opposition movement and make the current Armenian government “perpetual.” The pro-opposition paper describes as them as an attempt to undermine broader opposition cooperation in the country.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says Dashnaktsutyun is unwilling to accept Ter-Petrosian’s cooperation offers and prefers to go it alone. “Furthermore, the Dashnaks believe that our country is still not ready to hold free, fair and transparent elections and that their party’s efforts should concentrate on explaining the advantages of free elections to our society,” says the paper. “It would appear that our Dashnak comrades sincerely think that our electorate is solely to blame for the unfree and unfair elections of the last ten years. This position is fully understandable. After all, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation was one of the winners of the elections held over the past decade.”
In an interview with “Hraparak,” Zharangutyun leader Raffi Hovannisian says Armenia should draw up a contingency plan of actions for Turkey’s possible attempts to exploit its current chairmanship of the UN Security Council for pushing pro-Azerbaijani resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh. Hovannisian says Yerevan should counter that by citing pro-Armenian decisions of the League of Nations, the UN’s predecessor, or the 1920 Sevres Treaty. He says they carry more weight that Russian-Turkish agreements that determined Armenia’s current border with Turkey.
Deputy parliament speaker Samvel Nikoyan assures “Hayots Ashkhar” that an ad hoc parliamentary commission headed by him has sufficient material to answer most of the lingering questions about the March 2008 violence in Yerevan. “The only question which the commission can not fully answer today is issues related to the circumstances of the deaths,” says Nikoyan. More specifically, he says, it remains unclear who caused the deaths of eight civilians and two security personnel in the post-election clashes. The commission was not supposed to clarify that, according to Nikoyan.
(Aghasi Yenokian)