Deputy parliament speaker Samvel Nikoyan tells “Hraparak” that an ad hoc parliamentary commission headed by him has been unable to determine who killed ten people in Yerevan on March 1, 2008. He complains that the commission’s appeals to citizens to provide relevant information have not been heeded.
Eduard Sharmazanov, a spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), tells “Kapital” that the amnesty initiated by President Serzh Sarkisian was “unprecedented.” He says it is wrong to link the pardon only to the March 2008 unrest. “The [political] crisis was overcome before the amnesty,” says Sharmazanov. “The Yerevan municipal elections showed that at least in Yerevan the majority of the population voted for the party led by President Sarkisian.”
“Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” quotes Sarkisian as telling a group of school students on Thursday that “not all means are justified for solving issues.” “Often times people who try to achieve their goals at any cost empty their souls and minds and entourage,” said the president. “Keep in mind that those means must be good … You can never attain good goals by bad means.”
Arman Melikian, a former Nagorno-Karabakh foreign minister, tells “Zhamanak” that nobody in Armenia is prepared for a change in the Karabakh status at the moment. “The Karabakh issue has become an internal political factor in Armenia,” says Melikian. “But unfortunately Karabakh itself does not have a real significance in Armenia’s internal political life anymore. First of all, because Karabakh stripped itself of a right to have an independent voice and can not and probably does not want to regain that right.”
“Yerkir” carries an interview with Nikolay Ryzhkov, a former Soviet prime minister and a member of the Russian parliament. Ryzhkov believes that the Armenian genocide will be recognized by the world “step by step.” He says Armenia should not wait until that recognition to normalize relations with Turkey.
(Aghasi Yenokian)