Մատչելիության հղումներ

Press Review


“Capital” suggests that the unprecedented tour of the world’s major Armenian communities undertaken by President Serzh Sarkisian raises the question of whether the Diaspora is using the language of blackmail in talking to Armenia. The paper makes this conclusion based on the response from protesting Armenians for whom this “supranational tour is not a thing.”

“No word of encouragement, no spirit-lifting expression. There is no other way of bearing the Cross,” writes the daily. “The Diaspora is our wealth, our support and last hope anyway. It is impossible to imagine Armenia without its Diaspora according to the “prime-ministerial [Tigran Sarkisian’s] concept of the Armenian world”. The tenure of [Armenia’s second president] Robert Kocharian will be remembered by the visits and philanthropy of [Diaspora Armenian billionaire] Kirk Kerkorian, the tenure of [independent Armenia’s first president] Levon Ter-Petrosian will be remembered by the money raised from the Diaspora but never used for its purpose. Sarkisian’s presidency is likely to be signified by the ‘Diaspora boycott’...”

“Zhamanak” also comments on the Diaspora factor: “There were no violence and murders [on March 1-2, 2008), there were only elections, official election results and someone to welcome, Serzh Sarkisian, for the Diaspora Armenian organizations, traditional political parties and Diaspora structures. Moreover, these Diaspora organizations even employed their levers to ensure Sarkisian’s external legitimacy to make him acceptable and comprehensible abroad. Now these organizations are complaining and protesting and all but accusing Sarkisian of national treason, of course not directly yet. But the fact is that these organizations are simply reaping what they once sowed.”

“Taregir” talked to first commander of Karabakh self-defense forces Arkady Karapetian on the re-opening of the Turkish-Armenian border. Karapetian says: “The opening of the border does not give us anything good either culturally, or morally and psychologically. There is even no economic benefit from it. Whenever Turkey wants, it will close the border, will leave Armenian cargoes stranded on the road, will hold these cargoes hostage so that we do as it wishes. On the other hand, what do we have to export to outside markets? Is it our rocks that we will export to surprise the world?”

“Aravot” quotes “Political Analyses Club” center director Ruben Hakobian as saying that a leadership change in Armenia will allow the Armenian side to quit the negotiations with Turkey that are turning dangerous. Hakobian also says that the authorities of Armenia have not been frank to their people: “They have tried to conceal the truth from the people. I think the authorities have underestimated the capacity for intellectual analysis that our people have. Meanwhile, the people see and understand everything. I don’t think there is a need to overestimate the fact of the signing of the [Armenia-Turkey] protocols. Hundreds of international documents have been signed and have remained on paper…”

“Hayots Ashkhar” suggests that for once the interests of Armenia and such influential geopolitical centers of the world as Europe, Russia and the United States in our region have coincided.

“Therefore, we should not waste the opportunities offered by the geopolitical developments. Armenia no longer has the right to remain isolated in the rapidly developing and changing world. It is of no less importance that the geopolitical forces keep giving assurances one after another that the Armenian-Turkish normalization is taking place without preconditions and is in no way contingent on the course of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,” the paper concludes.
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