“Hraparak” comments on this week’s mutual visits of high-ranking government officials from Russia and Armenia and, in particular, speculation that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Yerevan with a final plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The paper finds that speculation trustworthy. It points to the announcement that President Serzh Sarkisian will visit Moscow on Monday. “It is evident that we are witnessing the acceleration of processes of resolving the Karabakh problem,” it says.
Yerjanik Abgarian of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) tells “Iravunk de facto” that by law the Constitutional Court did not have to look into the legality of the Turkish-Armenian protocols. He says the protocols were sent to the court because Sarkisian wants to share responsibility for them with other state bodies. Abgarian claims that the protocols’ entry into force does not even require a parliamentary approval.
Robert Avagian, a pro-government member of the now defunct Fact-Finding Group of Experts, assures “Zhamanak” that the bipartisan body would have shed more light on the causes of the ten fatalities that occurred during the March 2008 clashes in Yerevan had it not been disbanded in June. Avagian says the dissolution was the result of “information leaks” by its two opposition-appointed members. He says that the group’s findings have been incorporated into a report by a parliamentary commission that also investigated the clashes. As a result, adds Avagian, Council of Europe officials monitoring the political situation in Armenia would not have criticized that report.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” reports that parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamian has decided to remove opposition deputy Zaruhi Postanjian from the Armenian delegation at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). Abrahamian has argued that the delegation has had two opposition members since the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) left the governing coalition in April. (Dashnaktsutyun’s Armen Rustamian has long been a PACE member.) That, in his view, does not reflect the balance of forces in the National Assembly. Postanjian dismisses this justification, saying that the Armenian authorities simply do not want to see “the people’s voice head in the PACE.” She also questions Dashnaktsutyun’s opposition credentials.
“Dashnaktsutyun displayed absolute inactivity with regard to the tragic events that took place in our country: the rigged presidential elections, the bloody events of March 1, casualties, political prisoners. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation agrees with all that,” says Postanjian.
(Aghasi Yenokian)