“Iravunk” assures readers that a revolution in Armenia is inevitable because it “can not fail to take place.” “The whole country seems to be divided into revolutionaries and anti-revolutionaries. The government’s propaganda machine … is repeating what can be summed up as follows: a revolution can not happen because it can never take place. And that propaganda is almost as hysterical as it was after the comments and reports made by Elizabeth Jones and David Atkinson. One gets the impression that the authorities are alarmed by the inevitability of revolution.”
“Azg” says that Armenian opposition forces have amassed “enormous energy” for again attempting to effect regime change this spring. “All spaces in our domestic politics are occupied by oppositionists to an extent that will be enough for several generations.” But the paper is skeptical about opposition hopes of replicating Georgian and Ukrainian revolts, saying that “Armenia’s time has not yet come.”
In an interview with “Haykakan Zhamanak,” Prime Minister Andranik Markarian refutes fresh rumors about his resignation. “Such talk is more intensive this time because there are simply no other topics for [political] conversations,” he says. Markarian adds that among those spreading such rumors are “certain pro-government or, so to speak, semi-pro-government forces.” Those forces are already preparing for presidential elections, he says without naming anybody.
Markarian is also furious with parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian. “I don’t think that the positions of the National Assembly chairman have weakened,” he says. “On the contrary, from time to time the National Assembly chairman enters sphere that are beyond his responsibilities. I mean those councils that are created and chaired by the National Assembly chairman. I have instructed all executive bodies not to respond to papers from the commissions created by the National Assembly chairman and not to take part in their work.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” berates the chairman of the parliament committee on legal affairs, Rafik Petrosian, for complaining that members of the Armenian parliament lack the constitutional powers to deal voters’ grievances. The paper editorializes that in fact they have “feudal privileges that are comparable to those enjoyed by the Japanese samurai, the Ottoman janissaries or Spanish hidalgos.” But unlike the latter, it says, they have no obligations whatsoever.
(Vache Sarkisian)
“Azg” says that Armenian opposition forces have amassed “enormous energy” for again attempting to effect regime change this spring. “All spaces in our domestic politics are occupied by oppositionists to an extent that will be enough for several generations.” But the paper is skeptical about opposition hopes of replicating Georgian and Ukrainian revolts, saying that “Armenia’s time has not yet come.”
In an interview with “Haykakan Zhamanak,” Prime Minister Andranik Markarian refutes fresh rumors about his resignation. “Such talk is more intensive this time because there are simply no other topics for [political] conversations,” he says. Markarian adds that among those spreading such rumors are “certain pro-government or, so to speak, semi-pro-government forces.” Those forces are already preparing for presidential elections, he says without naming anybody.
Markarian is also furious with parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian. “I don’t think that the positions of the National Assembly chairman have weakened,” he says. “On the contrary, from time to time the National Assembly chairman enters sphere that are beyond his responsibilities. I mean those councils that are created and chaired by the National Assembly chairman. I have instructed all executive bodies not to respond to papers from the commissions created by the National Assembly chairman and not to take part in their work.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” berates the chairman of the parliament committee on legal affairs, Rafik Petrosian, for complaining that members of the Armenian parliament lack the constitutional powers to deal voters’ grievances. The paper editorializes that in fact they have “feudal privileges that are comparable to those enjoyed by the Japanese samurai, the Ottoman janissaries or Spanish hidalgos.” But unlike the latter, it says, they have no obligations whatsoever.
(Vache Sarkisian)