“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” is scathing about President Serzh Sarkisian’s April 24 statement on the Armenian genocide anniversary. “If we can prevent another genocide only by having a strong and prosperous state and achieve international recognition of the genocide by being strong, then we have regressed on both fronts as a result of Serzh Sarkisian’s rule,” says the paper highly critical of the Armenian government.
“Aravot” sees “positive changes” in the annual commemorations of the genocide victims in Armenia. The paper hails a substantial decrease in lamentations made on the occasion by government officials and ordinary Armenians visiting the Tsitsernakabert memorial in Yerevan. “There are fewer skulls and corpses [of genocide victims] and graphic descriptions of the atrocities shown on television,” editorializes the paper. “It’s very good to demand restitution if you really demand, not ask or beg, it because if you act like a solicitor you must also take on the role of a miserable and humiliated side that was stripped of everything in the past and that is now seeking justice as a favor.” The paper also suggests that a large part of financial and other resources used for commemorating the genocide and seeking its greater international recognition should be redirected at the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Zhoghovurd” reports that a government loyalist, Gurgen Avetisian, on Sunday tried to obstruct an election campaign meeting held by the opposition Yelk alliance and its mayoral candidate Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan’s Ajapnyak district. The paper says that Avetisian’s brother Aramayis is a former senior official of Yerevan’s municipal administration who was arrested and charged with bribery in December. “The authorities are trying to exploit the arrest and prosecution of people and force their relatives to work for the [ruling] HHK,” it claims. “It is not hard to presume that the Avetisians were warned that if they do not want Aramayis get a long prison sentence for bribery they must work hard for [Yerevan Mayor] Taron Markarian and earn him a corresponding number of votes [in the May 14 elections.]”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that Azerbaijan and Turkey will hold joint military exercises in Azerbaijan on May 1-5. “According to Azerbaijani media reports, Turkish soldiers are already stationed near the Karabakh-Azerbaijani border,” writes the paper.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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