Lragir.am scoffs at ongoing visits of senior Armenian government officials to army bases near the border with Azerbaijan, which are supposed to offer moral support to Armenian soldiers serving there. The online journal dismisses these trips as publicity stunts that make little or no difference.
In a yearend commentary, 7or.am says that 2014 saw the establishment of Armenia’s “second political pole” consisting of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the Armenian National Congress (HAK) and the Zharangutyun party. The pro-BHK publication claims that the opposition is managing to “counterbalance Serzh Sarkisian and the ruling Republican Party (HHK).” “This is the most important change in the political landscape that has occurred in the past year,” it says. It also predicts that the political life in Armenia in 2015 will center on Sarkisian’s controversial efforts to amend the Armenian constitution and opposition attempts to achieve “regime change.”
1in.am reacts to Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian’s Monday’s remark that his government has so far failed to improve the lives of most Armenians. “It is very easy for Hovik Abrahamian to make such a confession,” says the electronic daily. “He has been prime minister for only seven months and can easily refer to the previous government or governments, which is what he effectively did … The problem is that Armenia’s citizens have been hearing practically the same thing for almost two decades. At first, problems were blamed on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the war [with Azerbaijan,] then on the [former ruling] HHSh, then on Robert Kocharian and the construction bubble, and then on Tigran Sarkisian.”
“The past year has been unprecedented in terms of civic movements,” writes Newsbook.am. It says that the Armenian authorities have tried in vain to prevent those movements from cooperating with the opposition. “The civic movements have realized that under authoritarian regimes they can force the authorities to reckon with the legitimate interests of the society and its separate segments only by working together with political forces,” it says.
(Tigran Avetisian)