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Press Review


(Saturday, November 1)

“Azg” calls for a financial compensation to those Yerevan residents who have been hospitalized after drinking contaminated water. “In Europe or other places where the people’s health and nerves are respected, the guilty would have been strictly punished in such circumstances,” the paper says. But in Armenia, it says, not a single government official has been sacked or punished otherwise in connection with that.

“Aravot” says Yerevan’s water and sewerage network must also be sued by the Ministry of Health which has incurred additional expenses for treating patients free of charge. The paper also says that the government can force the company to compensate victims of the disease outbreak. “This would be much more honest than to advise the victims to go to court, knowing that nobody will take time and trouble to deal with courts,” it says.

Citing network executives, “Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” reports that the source of the contamination has still not been identified.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” continues to claim that railway in southeastern Meghri area is being dismantled. The paper suggests that by doing that the Armenian authorities may be preparing to give Meghri to Azerbaijan as part of a territorial swap that will resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Armenia is in a state of cold civil war,” politician and sociologist Lyudmila Harutiunian tells “Aravot.” Harutiunian, whose Dignified Future Party has no seats in parliament, says the Armenian government’s domestic policy is also “complementary.” One of its manifestations was the formation of a coalition government, she says, complaining that small pro-presidential parties were told after this year’s elections that “there is no place” for them in the political stage.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” carries a front-page picture of an expensive SUV car which it says belongs to the influential General Seyran Saroyan. The brand new Hummer has foreign license plates with three Lain letters: SFS 707. The paper says those are the initials of Saroyan’s first, middle and last names. “707 appears to symbolize the general’s angelic nature,” it adds sarcastically. “And the car as a whole shows that our army is the most combat-ready in the region, but only when it comes to battles waged by the vehicles of regional generals.”

“Aravot” reports that the government has added to is controversial bill on mass media a provision that bans dissemination of “information that would damage the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.” The paper claims that the Armenian media are thus being forced to “applaud” courts and avoid criticizing their “illegal verdicts.”

(Hrach Melkumian)
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