“Zhamanak” says the Armenian government’s “euphoria” about the withdrawal of Azerbaijan’s controversial draft resolution from the UN General Assembly is misplaced. “The thing is that it remains unclear how the Armenian diplomacy will counter that Azerbaijani initiative,” explains the paper. It notes that Armenian leaders seemed resigned to the passage of the resolution and sought to downplay its significance until Thursday. It thus wonders if they played any role in the document’s last-minute withdrawal.
“Hayots Ashkhar” says the content of international mediators existing peace proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh is not as important as chances for their acceptance and implementation by the conflicting parties. The paper says the United States, Russia and France have now three options in the Karabakh negotiating process: to get both sides to agree to a settlement, impose it on both of them, or maintain the status quo. “Right now the only thing the mediating powers are able to do -- and that really stems from their interests -- is to maintain peace by freezing the conflict,” it claims.
“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” comments on a global survey by the “Forbes” magazine which says the business environment in Armenia is worse than in neighboring Azerbaijan and Georgia. “Even those who have capital worth $50,000-$100,000 and would like to start up a business in Armenia can not do that,” claims the paper. “There is nowhere to invest money. Everything has long been closed and controlled.” It says this leads to an outflow of capital and people from the country. “This is the reason why this new wave of emigration from the country primarily involves not the poorest people but the middle class,” concludes the opposition daily.
“I have no desire to compete with anyone and think that I haven’t given anyone reason to compete with me or declare a war against me,” parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamian tells “Aravot.” “I like to stick to the rules of the game and work with my team, do my job. In my view, within the authority there are also people who try to create turmoil by spreading unfounded rumors. I can assure you that we have no problem with the current president.” Abrahamian claims that those government elements are trying to “drive a wedge between myself and Armenia’s president.”
“Kapital” reports that the Russian government announced on Thursday plans to restrict on exports of cooking oil and sunflower seeds. The paper says such a measure would push up the price of these foodstuffs in Armenia. “Our republic imports 18,000-19,000 tons of sunflower oil, the bulk of coming from Russia, each year,” it says.
(Tigran Avetisian)