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Press Review


(Saturday, October 31)

Speaking to “168 Zham,” Giro Manoyan, a senior member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), says the opposition party hopes to win over more political and non-political groups in its campaign against the ratification of the Turkish-Armenian protocols. He says a Dashnaktsutyun-led powerful popular movement could force the Armenian parliament’s pro-government majority to block the ratification. “We don’t need to convince everyone. We only need [the support of] the majority,” explains Manoyan.

Manoyan also insists that the Armenian government and Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) have similar positions on the issue. “True, there are certain forces and even individuals within the HAK that are against the ratification of these protocols,” he says. “But the Armenian National Congress does not reflect that as a collective opinion.”

“Zhamanak” says that the Armenian opposition should do everything to scuttle Yerevan’s acceptance of the international mediators’ existing proposals to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The pro-opposition daily believes that they “directly trample Armenia’s interests and security.” “How can the opposition halt that process?” it asks. “Probably only through regime change because with their stance and actions Armenia’s authorities do not seem to have left any other option.”

“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” criticizes the Armenian government’s draft budget for next year, saying that it is the latest indication of Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian’s loss of touch with reality. “He has invented an Armenian world for himself, is turning Gyumri into a sea port, building a secular city near [the monastery of] Khor Virap and so on,” says the pro-opposition paper. It describes Friday’s parliament discussions on the budget as “wretched.”

“Hayk” quotes a parliament deputy from the governing Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) as saying that its leader, Gagik Tsarukian, could easily buy up the lands in eastern Turkey that were populated by Armenians until 1915. The remark draws a mocking comment from the opposition paper: “Of course, after Gagik Tsarukian declared in the National Assembly that he gives each of his lions [kept in his private zoo] 10 kilograms of fresh veal a day, one can not doubt that, if need be, he could easily buy not only Western Armenia but also Istanbul and Ankara. Hopefully, the Turks won’t realize that danger and adopt a law that could thwart the Armenian oligarch’s intentions.”

(Aghasi Yenokian)
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