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Press Review


(Saturday, May 27)

In a commentary on the 88th anniversary of the establishment of a short-lived independent Armenian republic, “Hayots Ashkhar” draws parallels between the geopolitical situations in 1918 and now. “We were alone then and we are alone now,” writes the paper. “We will also be alone tomorrow. Therefore, we need to urgently get rid of the burden of mutual hatred and intolerance, rally around national ideas and realize that the nation and the state are supreme values.”

Citing unnamed diplomatic sources, “Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that international mediators are pressing the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign a peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh during their upcoming meeting in Romania.

“Hayots Ashkhar” comments sarcastically on oligarch Gagik Tsarukian’s interview with Armenian state television. “As we understood from Gagik Tsarukian’s televised remarks, he does not seem content himself with his charitable activities,” says the paper. “That benevolence is even kind of humiliating for a giant like him who, putting aside his more sublime and higher mission, is busy handing out some gifts, financing publication of books by one or another author, and sponsoring theater performances.” As for supporters of Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia party, they now have a “chance to prosper with slogans for the next few years,” according to “Hayots Ashkhar.”

“Golos Armenii” sees a “new majority” emerging in the Armenian parliament following the removal from government of Artur Baghdasarian’s Orinats Yerkir party. The paper claims that the People’s Deputy group of independent lawmakers may have refused to join the governing coalition because its leader, Karen Karapetian, was not offered the post of parliament speaker. But according to another theory, the People’s Deputy did not want to take responsibility for government policies with only one year to go before the next parliamentary elections. The paper also notes that Karapetian, unlike all other members of his faction, has so far refused to join the Association for Armenia party reportedly sponsored by Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian.

“168 Zham” says opposition leader Stepan Demirchian was right to show restraint in his response to the allegedly false statements made by another oppositionist, Artashes Geghamian, with regard to his late father Karen. The paper claims that the Armenian authorities are trying to “drive the opposition into self-destruction.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that Geghamian pleaded with Demirchian not to attack him publicly moments before the latter’s angry news conference on Friday. “And after Demirchian replied that there are things he can not tolerate and will definitely talk about that, Artashes Mamikonovich tried to persuade a senior member of [Demirchian’s] HZhK, Grigor Harutiunian, to deter Stepan Karenovich and not play into the hands of the authorities and the [former ruling] HHSh.”

According to “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun,” some analysts believe that Demirchian and Baghdasarian are increasingly likely to form an alliance.

(Hrach Melkumian)
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