“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” reacts to Dashnaktsutyun leader Armen Rustamian’s remark that Armenia’s government is “discredited” in the eyes of many people. The paper says it is part of an ongoing “haggling” between Dashnaktsutyun and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) over government posts that will be given to Dashnaktsutyun as part of their upcoming power-sharing agreement. “The public is closely monitoring this haggling and having a lot of fun because it is very interesting and funny indeed,” it says.
“A responsible political force would not cooperate with a discredited government and would try instead to create an environment in which it would be possible to achieve change,” writes “Zhamanak.” The paper says the spat between the HHK and Dashnaktsutyun triggered by Rustamian’s claim is further complicating their coalition accord.
“168 Zham” says the fact that the Armenian parliament is headed by a controversial politician like Galust Sahakian is quite logical. “With his incomprehensible and meaningless statements he perfectly sums up the parliament’s activities which can only be described as shallow,” writes the paper.
“Government representatives frequently call on their critics not to politicize one or another issue,” editorializes “Aravot.” “So much so that National Assembly speaker Galust Sahakian has spoken out against attempts to ‘politicize’ legislative initiatives. But the parliament is a body which unites or is supposed to unite politicians. Any word uttered there has a political connotation. In all more or less developed countries of the world, deputies criticize, attack, defend and propose for only one purpose: to prove that only their party is capable of leading the nation to happiness and welfare.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has started taking steps to ensure a “slow and smooth depreciation” of the national currency, the dram. The paper argues that the dram has weakened against the U.S. dollar by about 1 percent in the past week. It says that a consumer price deflation registered in December is allowing the CBA to loosen its monetary policy.
(Tigran Avetisian)