Մատչելիության հղումներ

Press Review


“Aravot” reports that tension is rising in the northern Armenian town of Alaverdi ahead of a mayoral election that has pitted Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party (HHK) against a candidate backed by Henrik Kocharian, governor of the Lori region of which Alaverdi is part. The paper says supporters of the HHK candidate, Edik Serimazanov, burned Kochinian’s pictures as they demonstrated outside the local municipality this week. The other candidate and his supporters have declared that “they are not afraid of the prime minister and will fight to the end.”

“Aravot” also says the local chief prosecutor, meanwhile, is busy enlisting participants for the May 28 circle dance around Armenia’s Mount Aragats which is planned by Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian. They pledged to sign up 1,700 local residents. The paper adds that the local prosecutors have also been instructed to buy about 60 sheep and up to 40 liters of homemade vodka.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports on similar tensions in Yerevan’s Arabkir district. “A battle of oligarchs is expected there,” writes the paper. “And as observers predict, hostilities in Arabkir are inevitable … The main parties in the struggle rule out any compromise.” The paper says those are the clans led by two wealthy parliamentarians, Gurgen Arsenian and Levon Sargsian. The latter is said to enjoy the crucial backing of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

“Hayots Ashkhar” is confident that “no serious upheavals” will happen in Armenia in the foreseeable future and that “the revolution is being postponed by one or two years.” The paper predicts that the Armenian opposition will not recognize official results of the next parliamentary and presidential elections.

“In the history of the humankind police have never betrayed a government which they serve,” the controversial deputy chief of the Armenian police, General Hovannes Varian, tells “168 Zham.” Varian does not expect a revolution in Armenia any time soon, saying that no ex-Soviet state is as stable as Armenia. “You can compare us to our neighboring states that were created long ago and have long been independent,” he says. “Those are Iran, Turkey. I wouldn’t say that their citizens are better off than ours. Not to mention Azerbaijan and Georgia.” The Armenian opposition, Varian concludes, wants “some ideal things which are impossible.”

(Vache Sarkisian)
XS
SM
MD
LG