(Saturday, October 11)
“Zhoghovurd” says that unlike Levon Ter-Petrosian and other opposition leaders, Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian avoided delivering a substantive speech at Friday’s opposition rally in Yerevan. “Also unclear was Raffi Hovannisian’s speech, which he did not even finish,” says the paper. “The main [opposition] message was apparently contained in Levon Ter-Petrosian’s speech.” Citing Ter-Petrosian’s remarks, it claims that the opposition trio offered a deal to President Serzh Sarkisian.
According to “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun,” the BHK, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) and Hovannisian’s Zharangutyun party told the crowd that “regime change is a lasting and difficult process and they are ready to go to the end.” “Assuming, of course, that the people are ready too,” writes the pro-HAK daily. The next rally will show whether they are, it says.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says that in the run-up to the rally top representatives of the three parties were saying that that their further actions will be decided by the people who will gather in Yerevan’s Liberty Square. “Yesterday Levon Ter-Petrosian offered a totally different logic, ‘The timetable and speed of our actions shall be defined by the opposition leadership, and nobody else.’ The first president said nothing about the role of the people.”
“Publish your program,” “Hraparak” appeals to the opposition trio. “Just a few years ago, even in the most fantastic dream we could not imagine Levon Ter-Petrosian and Gagik Tsarukian sitting next to one another or coming together to hold a rally in Liberty Square,” editorializes the paper. “But life is full of surprises and this is not the worst surprise. If this is what is required by the interests of the state and the nation, so it be, we don’t mind. But what is this magnificent duo planning to do and what can we expect from their union? For the time being they are not speaking about Serzh Sarkisian’s ouster. But they are not specifying any time frames and methods for that. It is not even clear whether they are seeking his immediate ouster or his natural exit in 2018.”
“168 Zham” says that Ter-Petrosian has now teamed up with a man whom he had accused of complicity in the March 2008 deadly crackdown on the opposition. The paper also takes note of Ter-Petrosian’s assurances that former President Robert Kocharian, who is regarded by some analysts as Tsarukian’s political patron, is not involved in the new opposition movement in any way.
“Zhamanak” deplores the signing of Armenia’s accession treaty with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), saying that it amounts to a loss of national sovereignty. The paper also claims that the EEU’s three member states -- Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan -- sell weapons to Azerbaijan and/or act like Baku’s “political partners.”
(Heghine Buniatian)