“168 Zham” speculates that Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) and Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) may be creating only a semblance of friction between them as part of a secret plan agreed by the two forces. The paper says the BHK might use a stark warning issued by the HAK on Sunday to mislead the Armenian government into thinking that Tsarukian’s party poses no real threat to Sarkisian.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” sees, however, “substantial differences” emerging between the two opposition allies. “Perhaps this fact would have been deemed natural had there not been one fact,” writes the paper. “With his speech at a rally held in Liberty Square on October 24, HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosian tried to give the impression that the [opposition] trio has worked out a clear plan of strategic and tactical actions. Ter-Petrosian said that they will not disclose their tactic for now so that Serzh Sarkisian does not know it. But against the backdrop of the BHK-HAK skirmish this claim by the HAK leader is taking on a totally different meaning.” The paper says that either Ter-Petrosian did not tell the truth or “one of the parties has fooled the other.”
“Zhoghovurd” reports on Sarkisian’s announcement that the government will again examine 12 demands that were made by the BHK, the HAK and the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party in June. “This statement by Sarkisian was unexpected because the trio itself has forgotten about those demands,” comments the paper. “By reviving those 12 points Serzh Sarkisian seems to be trying to get the trio back onto the constructive plane and help it save face so that they can claim that the government has met one or another opposition demand under their pressure,” it says.
“In effect, this is Serzh Sarkisian’s second concession [to the opposition,]” writes “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun.” “The first one was his decision [last month] to postpone further discussions on constitutional reforms until February. Now he is publicly instructing the government to revisit the opposition demands. This means that the opposition rallies are bearing fruit and that little by little Serzh Sarkisian is making concessions in order to somewhat ease internal political tensions.”
(Tigran Avetisian)