“What Armenia lacks is not programs and ideas but the will to really put an idea or a program into practice,” writes “Zhamanak.” “The authorities present great ideas and detailed programs and write nice laws but all that remains on paper.” The paper says they reject any constructive program whose implementation would jeopardize their grip on power.
“Hraparak” says that Armenian officials are very good at circumventing laws. The paper says that many of them go on vacation in the run-up to elections to get around a legal ban on their involvement in election campaigns. It says they come up with other excuses to justify the holding of partisan meetings at schools and other educational institutions.
“If a person has a high-level political position and is a businessman, then he can easily use his position to expand his businesses,” Razmik Zohrabian, a deputy chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), tells “168 Zham.” “In all civilized countries, the public and private sectors are separated but that separation cannot be done in one day. It should take place smoothly and without upheavals. It should be a slow process.” Zohrabian says failure to expedite such a process would lose Armenia further international assistance.
“I can’t understand what has made our oppositionists enthusiastic about the Arab spring and what they expect from turning Armenia into Tunisia or Egypt,” writes “Aravot” editor Aram Abrahamian. “First of all, the regimes in Armenia and, say, Libya, do not resemble each other at all … But even if we put that aside, do we want to see what is now taking place in those Arab countries happen in Armenia as well? We can probably find better models to replicate.” In that regard, says Abrahamian, opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian was right not to tell tens of thousands of supporters to attack the presidential palace in Yerevan in February 2008.
(Aghasi Yenokian)
“Hraparak” says that Armenian officials are very good at circumventing laws. The paper says that many of them go on vacation in the run-up to elections to get around a legal ban on their involvement in election campaigns. It says they come up with other excuses to justify the holding of partisan meetings at schools and other educational institutions.
“If a person has a high-level political position and is a businessman, then he can easily use his position to expand his businesses,” Razmik Zohrabian, a deputy chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), tells “168 Zham.” “In all civilized countries, the public and private sectors are separated but that separation cannot be done in one day. It should take place smoothly and without upheavals. It should be a slow process.” Zohrabian says failure to expedite such a process would lose Armenia further international assistance.
“I can’t understand what has made our oppositionists enthusiastic about the Arab spring and what they expect from turning Armenia into Tunisia or Egypt,” writes “Aravot” editor Aram Abrahamian. “First of all, the regimes in Armenia and, say, Libya, do not resemble each other at all … But even if we put that aside, do we want to see what is now taking place in those Arab countries happen in Armenia as well? We can probably find better models to replicate.” In that regard, says Abrahamian, opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian was right not to tell tens of thousands of supporters to attack the presidential palace in Yerevan in February 2008.
(Aghasi Yenokian)