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Press Review


“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” questions the opposition credentials of the Zharangutyun Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), citing their criticism of the ongoing demonstrations held by the Armenian National Congress (HAK). “The thing is that elections are coming up and it is evident that the main struggle will unfold between the ruling coalition and the Congress,” says the pro-HAK paper. It claims that Zharangutyun and Dashnaktsutyun are now effectively begging the government to give them seats in the next parliament.

“Hayots Ashkhar” quotes Hrayr Karapetian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, as dismissing Ter-Petrosian’s claims that dozens of Dashnaktsutyun members were jailed in 1994 and 1995 for murder and drug trafficking and were therefore not political prisoners. Karapetian says that his party faced “political accusations” at the time. He argues that the Ter-Petrosian government banned Dashnaktsutyun and closed more than a dozen media outlets linked with the party. That was done for neutralizing Ter-Petrosian’s “main political rival” ahead of the 1995 parliamentary elections, says Karapetian.

“Yerkir” says the ideas and goals advanced by the HAK in Liberty Square are not generating popular enthusiasm. “Who needs pre-term elections except the Congress?” says the Dashnaktsutyun-linked daily. “They simply have no other goals as they demand the solving of the ten deaths on March 1, 2008, Tigran Arakelian’s release … the lifting of the ban on street trade in Yerevan, the scrapping of the municipality’s decision to dismantle kiosks in the capital and the end of court proceedings against media and journalists only in order to return to power.”

“Zhamanak” points out that Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian this week declined to state whom the BHK will be supporting in the 2013 presidential election. The party officially pledged to back President Serzh Sarkisian’s reelection last February. The paper claims that Tsarukian is now reneging on that pledge. “Was Gagik Tsarukian disoriented by the possibility of Robert Kocharian’s political activity?” it asks. “After all, it’s difficult to imagine Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian fielding their candidacies. One could imagine such a scenario only if Levon Ter-Petrosian was not around.”

(Aghasi Yenokian)
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