(Saturday, September 6)
“Zhamanak” is glad that President Serzh Sarkisian did not shun a NATO summit this time around. “This participation is the minimum necessary step for Yerevan which will allow it to expect a tangible influence and a stake in the security-related decisions that have been made within the NATO framework,” writes the paper. “There was also another important event for Armenia [on the fringes of the NATO summit] -- the Sarkisian-Aliyev meeting organized by the U.S.” All this gives the paper reason to conclude that the summit results were “by and large positive for Armenia.”
“The question now is how Armenia will use these positive developments,” continues “Zhamanak.” The paper wonders whether President Serzh Sarkisian’s administration will build on this success or on the contrary make more concessions to Russia.
“Zhoghovurd” hits out at members of the Public Council, an advisory body reporting to Sarkisian, for calling for a change of Armenia’s coat-in-arms, national anthem and flag. “So things are so good in our country that it only needs to urgently change its state symbols,” comments the paper. “The strength of a country is manifested not by its symbols but its economic and demographic situation.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that several villages in Armenia’s fruit-growing Ararat Valley are grappling with a serious lack of irrigation water because of nearby fish farms “relentlessly” exploiting underground waters in the area. “Water resources have decreased so much that every day during this season of orchard irrigation protests against the scarcity of water break out in a community,” writes the paper. It says that some environment protection activists are now speaking of an “ecological disaster” facing the region.
(Hovannes Movsisian)