“Aravot” says police attacks on groups of activists publicizing opposition rallies in Yerevan have been a “tradition” since October 2007. The paper says victims of those attacks are routinely charged with assaulting police officers. “Neither uniformed nor plainclothes policemen that attack citizens like thugs are identified and punished,” it says. “This tested method was again used on July 1 against young activists of the Armenian National Congress.”
“That the authorities have turned the police into a bandit structure financed from the state budget and use it for their personal aims has long bee known,” writes “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun.” “The July 1 attack on HAK activists by undercover policemen is the latest evidence of that.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” claims that there are growing differences among about 20 parties making up the HAK and that Levon Ter-Petrosian and his closest associates have started thinking about ditching the alliance. The pro-government paper says the latter want form a single party and contest the next parliamentary elections due in 2012.
“Hraparak” quotes President Serzh Sarkisian as saying on Monday that any peace agreement with Azerbaijan must uphold Nagorno-Karabakh’s “right to self-determination,” strengthen Karabakh’s “overland connection” with Armenia and guarantee non-use of force. In an editorial, the paper claims that it is now impossible to get international mediators to formalize these “declarative principles.” It says former President Robert Kocharian stayed in power for ten years because he “misled” the international community and the domestic public with such statements.
“Kapital” reports that base metals and molybdenum in particular remain Armenia’s single largest export item. The monetary volume of molybdenum exports totaled about $208 million in 2008. Armenia also exported $144 million worth of refined diamonds. The paper says the figure negates a widely held belief that the country’s diamond-processing industry is in serious crisis. It says diamonds and mining output accounted for most of Armenian exports in 2008. “This structure is characteristic of an underdeveloped economy and testifies to the fact that the Armenian economy is in strong need of qualitative growth,” concludes “Kapital.”
(Tigran Avetisian)