“Hayots Ashkhar” regards Turkey’s furious reaction to the Vatican’s recognition of the Armenian genocide reaffirmed by Pope Francis as “natural,” saying that the Ottoman masterminds of the 1915 slaughter are the “spiritual fathers” of Turkey’s current leaders. “The current Turkish government is carrying on with its denialist approach, which makes it an accomplice to the crime,” writes the paper. It goes on to condemn Turkish leaders’ “offensive” statements addressed to Francis. “This can be deemed a sign of the weakness and certain impotence of the Turkish authorities,” it says.
“Zhamanak” believes that the Armenian government should come up with a clearer strategy of genocide recognition and not confine itself to thanking foreign nations and organizations acknowledging the genocide. “Or else, recognition of the Armenian genocide by 2 or 102 countries in the absence of such a strategy would not change much for Armenia,” writes the paper.
Interviewed by “Haykakan Zhamanak,” Aram Hakobian, the head of the Gyumri branch of the opposition Founding Parliament, categorically denies ownership of a hand grenade which law-enforcement bodies claim to have found in his house last week. Hakobian insists that it was confiscated from an adjacent house belonging to one of his cousins. “Nobody lives in my cousin’s home,” he says, adding that the grenade must have been planted by law-enforcement officers. “They did a sloppy job,” claims the oppositionist who spent three days in police custody.
“Zhoghovurd” is worried that Armenia may fail to keep the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary (PACE) from adopting a “pro-Azerbaijani” resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict drafted by Robert Walter, a British lawmaker sympathetic to Azerbaijan’s government. The paper says the head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation at the PACE, Hermine Naghdalian, will share much of the blame if the resolution is adopted by the Strasbourg assembly. It suggests that the upcoming PACE session in Strasbourg will be Naghdalian’s last chance to have the document amended or killed altogether.
(Tigran Avetisian)