“Azg” dismisses government loyalists’ statements that the May 31 elections in Yerevan are only about municipal affairs and must not be “politicized.” The paper argues that the elections are political by definition because they will be held under the system of proportional representation. It says that the ruling Republican Party’s possible poor showing in the polls would change the balance of forces in the Armenian political arena and influence President Serzh Sarkisian’s further actions.
Speaking to “Hayots Ashkhar,” Vahram Atanesian, a senior member of Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament, disagrees with some of his colleagues’ calls for a limitation of Armenia’s role in the Karabakh process. “Those evaluations are a bit exaggerated and even extraordinary,” he says. Atanesian also rebukes Armenian opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian for urging Karabakh Armenians to revolt against the authorities in Yerevan. “No Karabakhi is going to turn to [Ter-Petrosian] for help,” he says. “Because they know very well in Karabakh what variant [of a peaceful settlement] he advocated in 1997 and why he had to resign.”
“Aravot” disapproves of Ter-Petrosian’s allegations that President Sarkisian has agreed to “sell out” the Armenian genocide and Karabakh. “In the last 18 years such an accusations has been voiced by all Armenian opposition forces against all governments,” editorializes the paper. It effectively defends Sarkisian’s Karabakh policy, saying that Armenia will have to make peace with Azerbaijan on much less favorable terms in the future if it refuses to accept international mediators’ existing Karabakh peace plan. “If concerns are sincere, they need to be expressed in a restrained and moderate way,” writes the paper.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” discusses the continuing trials of Ter-Petrosian supporters and, in particular, testimonies given by witnesses in court. Some of those witnesses have retracted their pre-trial statements, saying that he were forced to incriminate the jailed oppositionists. The opposition paper finds astonishing a statement by the Office of the Prosecutor-General explaining what other witnesses really meant. “The court, the participants of the trial, the press, the public are unable to understand on their own what a witness means when he says that he both took part and didn’t take part in the March 1 [2008] rally,” it says sarcastically.
(Aghasi Yenokian)
Speaking to “Hayots Ashkhar,” Vahram Atanesian, a senior member of Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament, disagrees with some of his colleagues’ calls for a limitation of Armenia’s role in the Karabakh process. “Those evaluations are a bit exaggerated and even extraordinary,” he says. Atanesian also rebukes Armenian opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian for urging Karabakh Armenians to revolt against the authorities in Yerevan. “No Karabakhi is going to turn to [Ter-Petrosian] for help,” he says. “Because they know very well in Karabakh what variant [of a peaceful settlement] he advocated in 1997 and why he had to resign.”
“Aravot” disapproves of Ter-Petrosian’s allegations that President Sarkisian has agreed to “sell out” the Armenian genocide and Karabakh. “In the last 18 years such an accusations has been voiced by all Armenian opposition forces against all governments,” editorializes the paper. It effectively defends Sarkisian’s Karabakh policy, saying that Armenia will have to make peace with Azerbaijan on much less favorable terms in the future if it refuses to accept international mediators’ existing Karabakh peace plan. “If concerns are sincere, they need to be expressed in a restrained and moderate way,” writes the paper.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” discusses the continuing trials of Ter-Petrosian supporters and, in particular, testimonies given by witnesses in court. Some of those witnesses have retracted their pre-trial statements, saying that he were forced to incriminate the jailed oppositionists. The opposition paper finds astonishing a statement by the Office of the Prosecutor-General explaining what other witnesses really meant. “The court, the participants of the trial, the press, the public are unable to understand on their own what a witness means when he says that he both took part and didn’t take part in the March 1 [2008] rally,” it says sarcastically.
(Aghasi Yenokian)