(Saturday, May 17)
“Aravot” says Armenian law-enforcement authorities have so far failed to shed light on the precise circumstances in which ten people were killed in the March 1 clashes in Yerevan between police and opposition protesters. “During these two and a half months our law-enforcers have been doing anything but solving those crimes,” editorializes the paper. “Thousands of people have been tried, arrested and taken into custody for various reasons and sins. One [opposition supporter] held a stick in his hand, another said what the authorities believe are wrong things during rallies, a third one had 30 cartridges at home, a fourth one dared to transfer money to [Levon] Ter-Petrosian’s pre-election fund, a fifth one resisted policemen armed with truncheons and electric-shock guns and so on and on. However, during [the past] 45 days the special investigating team of the prosecutor’s office has not stated, ‘This person or this policeman shot at this citizen, as a result of which the latter died. And this official ordered [police] to shoot at citizens.’”
“168 Zham” comments on the latest recriminations traded by Ter-Petrosian and former President Robert Kocharian, saying that they must have left many Armenians confused. “When the first president of the Republic of Armenia accuses the second and third ones of quite grave crimes, receiving equally grave accusations in response, and when those accusations entail no legal consequences, the public increasingly bewildered and disappointed from election to election finds itself in an awkward position.”
“We have to admit that the prosecutor-general [Aghvan Hovsepian] is right: a mass psychosis has really been observed in Armenia since March 1,” “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” notes tartly. “It’s impossible to find another explanation for the regime’s actions.” The opposition paper claims in this regard that a group of members of the governing Republican Party (HHK) wreaked havoc last week on a children’s playground in Yerevan built by Khachatur Sukiasian, the fugitive opposition businessman. “In connection with that, HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov declared that no sensible man would do such barbaric acts. But who says that was done by sensible persons? That was done by the regime’s loyalists.”
Interviewed by “Hayots Ashkhar,” an HHK deputy chairman, Galust Sahakian, accuses the Ter-Petrosian camp of blackmailing the authorities to hold snap parliamentary elections. “For us, this is an unacceptable approach,” he says. “If the elections were alright and assessed positively by observers, then what’s the problem? Why must some forces be in parliament?”
(Armen Dulian)
“Aravot” says Armenian law-enforcement authorities have so far failed to shed light on the precise circumstances in which ten people were killed in the March 1 clashes in Yerevan between police and opposition protesters. “During these two and a half months our law-enforcers have been doing anything but solving those crimes,” editorializes the paper. “Thousands of people have been tried, arrested and taken into custody for various reasons and sins. One [opposition supporter] held a stick in his hand, another said what the authorities believe are wrong things during rallies, a third one had 30 cartridges at home, a fourth one dared to transfer money to [Levon] Ter-Petrosian’s pre-election fund, a fifth one resisted policemen armed with truncheons and electric-shock guns and so on and on. However, during [the past] 45 days the special investigating team of the prosecutor’s office has not stated, ‘This person or this policeman shot at this citizen, as a result of which the latter died. And this official ordered [police] to shoot at citizens.’”
“168 Zham” comments on the latest recriminations traded by Ter-Petrosian and former President Robert Kocharian, saying that they must have left many Armenians confused. “When the first president of the Republic of Armenia accuses the second and third ones of quite grave crimes, receiving equally grave accusations in response, and when those accusations entail no legal consequences, the public increasingly bewildered and disappointed from election to election finds itself in an awkward position.”
“We have to admit that the prosecutor-general [Aghvan Hovsepian] is right: a mass psychosis has really been observed in Armenia since March 1,” “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” notes tartly. “It’s impossible to find another explanation for the regime’s actions.” The opposition paper claims in this regard that a group of members of the governing Republican Party (HHK) wreaked havoc last week on a children’s playground in Yerevan built by Khachatur Sukiasian, the fugitive opposition businessman. “In connection with that, HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov declared that no sensible man would do such barbaric acts. But who says that was done by sensible persons? That was done by the regime’s loyalists.”
Interviewed by “Hayots Ashkhar,” an HHK deputy chairman, Galust Sahakian, accuses the Ter-Petrosian camp of blackmailing the authorities to hold snap parliamentary elections. “For us, this is an unacceptable approach,” he says. “If the elections were alright and assessed positively by observers, then what’s the problem? Why must some forces be in parliament?”
(Armen Dulian)