“The problem here is not only that the project that cost 4 billion drams (about $10.5 million) is a sizable and significant investment for a small and crisis-hit country like Armenia and that’s why it gets attention on the presidential level. The problem is more of a moral and psychological than financial nature. The thing is that the car park has been built under a place where about two and a half years ago an attempt was made to build something else, which by its essence, significance, its energy and aura, scale and depth was much more than a three-storey parking facility. An attempt to build a new Armenia was being made in Liberty Square and that attempt was suppressed with the use of brutal force…,” writes the paper, referring to the violent dispersal of the opposition’s post-election sit-in protest in Liberty Square on March 1, 2008.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” suggests that the necessity and expedience of the car park project will be seen in the near future. In the meantime, the daily says, “this structure has a different charm.”
“The thing is that the launching of the construction of this facility gave the current authorities an excuse to keep the opposition from staging rallies in Liberty Square. And in this sense the most important question now is whether public rallies can be held in this place again,” writes “Haykakan Zhamanak”. “The author of the car park project told us that not only public rallies, but also military reviews involving heavy armored vehicles can be staged there. So, Liberty Square has been reopened in good time.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” continues to gauge the impact of the latest resolution of the European Parliament that calls for the “withdrawal of Armenian forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
The paper discards what it calls ‘standard feel-good statements’ by some Armenian politicians who refer to the fact that this was a nonbinding resolution.
“No doubt that this is so and that it is not what a European Parliament resolution says that will decide the fate of Karabakh and Armenians, especially that another international structure, OSCE, has got a mandate through its Minsk Group to deal with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict… Still, we cannot but take notice of the attitude of European or other international bodies to an issue that has such a vital importance for us. After all, different nonbinding resolutions may also form a common opinion, or at least influence this common opinion, taking it to a direction unfavorable to us. This prompts the need for Armenia and Armenians to drastically reconsider their work with the world, in this particular case with European countries,” writes “Hayots Ashkhar”.
“Hraparak” editorializes on the high-profile trial of a former teacher who was found guilty of having sexually and physically abused his underage students.
“To be frank, what this teacher committed seems a lesser crime compared to what the sadist headmaster of this boarding school did. And for some reason this headmaster is allowed to continue to head the school and no criminal case is being brought against him,” writes the paper, urging the authorities to find a way to hold the person responsible at least by dismissing him from his job.
(Tigran Avetisian)
“Haykakan Zhamanak” suggests that the necessity and expedience of the car park project will be seen in the near future. In the meantime, the daily says, “this structure has a different charm.”
“The thing is that the launching of the construction of this facility gave the current authorities an excuse to keep the opposition from staging rallies in Liberty Square. And in this sense the most important question now is whether public rallies can be held in this place again,” writes “Haykakan Zhamanak”. “The author of the car park project told us that not only public rallies, but also military reviews involving heavy armored vehicles can be staged there. So, Liberty Square has been reopened in good time.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” continues to gauge the impact of the latest resolution of the European Parliament that calls for the “withdrawal of Armenian forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
The paper discards what it calls ‘standard feel-good statements’ by some Armenian politicians who refer to the fact that this was a nonbinding resolution.
“No doubt that this is so and that it is not what a European Parliament resolution says that will decide the fate of Karabakh and Armenians, especially that another international structure, OSCE, has got a mandate through its Minsk Group to deal with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict… Still, we cannot but take notice of the attitude of European or other international bodies to an issue that has such a vital importance for us. After all, different nonbinding resolutions may also form a common opinion, or at least influence this common opinion, taking it to a direction unfavorable to us. This prompts the need for Armenia and Armenians to drastically reconsider their work with the world, in this particular case with European countries,” writes “Hayots Ashkhar”.
“Hraparak” editorializes on the high-profile trial of a former teacher who was found guilty of having sexually and physically abused his underage students.
“To be frank, what this teacher committed seems a lesser crime compared to what the sadist headmaster of this boarding school did. And for some reason this headmaster is allowed to continue to head the school and no criminal case is being brought against him,” writes the paper, urging the authorities to find a way to hold the person responsible at least by dismissing him from his job.
(Tigran Avetisian)