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Press Review


“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” claims that Armenia is “little by little starting to live in emergency conditions” characteristic of wartime countries. The opposition paper points to recent years’ legislative changes that have facilitated the confiscation of private property by the state and made it easier for the authorities to fine “any person.” “They can close any road or blockade any settlement at any moment,” it says.

In an interview with “Aravot,” human rights campaigner Vartan Harutiunian praises a report on the trials of Armenian opposition members released this week by the OSCE’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). He at the same time criticizes the ODIHR for not making it public earlier. “That should have been done last year, in the autumn,” says Harutiunian. “They published the report now that it can not have a very big resonance [in Armenia.]” He claims that the document can only be used by foreign governments and organizations for exerting pressure on Armenia.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that Gevorg Tovmasian, one of the two pro-government members of a now defunct bi-partisan body that investigated the March 2008 violence in Yerevan, has been appointed as advisor to Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian. The paper recalls that Tovmasian had already worked at the law-enforcement agency and retired from it in late 2008 when he became a member of the Fact-Finding Group of Experts.

Galust Sahakian, the parliamentary leader of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), acknowledges, in an interview with “Iravunk,” that he is not aware of the content of Yerevan’s written response to international mediators’ updated Karabakh peace plan. “Even if I was informed, I would naturally not tell you anything about it because these are not the kind of documents that were ratified and have to be published,” he says.

Political analyst Manvel Sargsian assures “Kapital” that the Karabakh Armenian leadership’s renewed direct involvement in the peace process would “change everything.” “If Karabakh returns, all of a sudden, to the negotiating process, it will mean that Azerbaijan has to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” he says.

(Aghasi Yenokian)
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