For “Hayots Ashkhar,” the problem with Armenia’s parliament is not that it was formed under a wrong electoral system or as a result of vote irregularities.” “It’s just that people don’t understand why it is needed,” writes the paper. “Even experts will not give an immediate answer if you ask them to tell the difference between our parliament and the legal departments of the president’s or prime minister’s office.”
Interviewed by “168 Zham,” Grigor Harutiunian, a senior member of Stepan Demirchian’s People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK), comments on reports that four other opposition groups consider leaving the Armenian National Congress (HAK) alliance. Harutiunian says that as recently as on January 30 all 18 parties aligned in the HAK decided that they will participate in the May 6 parliamentary elections. “Now those four organizations are saying that they do not want to participate in those elections but will remain in the HAK,” he says. “No problem, that’s a normal phenomenon. If they don’t want, so it be. For example, I also don’t want to participate in the elections.”
“Yerkir” suggests that the elections will serve as a “filter” for the HAK. The paper says that HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosian has until now managed to paper over cracks within his alliance. It claims that Ter-Petrosian’s fresh overtures to Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) sparked “the start of the HAK’s disintegration.” “It is hard to tell if the HAK will finally fall apart before the deadline for the submission of electoral lists,” it says. In any case, the HAK’s collapse will be inevitable after the bloc enters the next National Assembly, predicts “Yerkir.”
“Zhamanak” argues against former President Robert Kocharian’s possible return to the political arena, saying that such a comeback “cannot have constructive elements.” The paper points to a Kocharian spokesman’s remark that the ex-president never lost an election. “If Kocharian considers the 1998 and 2003 elections to have been victorious elections, then a politician with such mindset really has no place in Armenia’s political life because he absolutely does not correspond to the demands of the modern era,” it says, accusing Kocharian of establishing a “criminal-oligarchic system” during his rule.
(Aghasi Yenokian)
Interviewed by “168 Zham,” Grigor Harutiunian, a senior member of Stepan Demirchian’s People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK), comments on reports that four other opposition groups consider leaving the Armenian National Congress (HAK) alliance. Harutiunian says that as recently as on January 30 all 18 parties aligned in the HAK decided that they will participate in the May 6 parliamentary elections. “Now those four organizations are saying that they do not want to participate in those elections but will remain in the HAK,” he says. “No problem, that’s a normal phenomenon. If they don’t want, so it be. For example, I also don’t want to participate in the elections.”
“Yerkir” suggests that the elections will serve as a “filter” for the HAK. The paper says that HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosian has until now managed to paper over cracks within his alliance. It claims that Ter-Petrosian’s fresh overtures to Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) sparked “the start of the HAK’s disintegration.” “It is hard to tell if the HAK will finally fall apart before the deadline for the submission of electoral lists,” it says. In any case, the HAK’s collapse will be inevitable after the bloc enters the next National Assembly, predicts “Yerkir.”
“Zhamanak” argues against former President Robert Kocharian’s possible return to the political arena, saying that such a comeback “cannot have constructive elements.” The paper points to a Kocharian spokesman’s remark that the ex-president never lost an election. “If Kocharian considers the 1998 and 2003 elections to have been victorious elections, then a politician with such mindset really has no place in Armenia’s political life because he absolutely does not correspond to the demands of the modern era,” it says, accusing Kocharian of establishing a “criminal-oligarchic system” during his rule.
(Aghasi Yenokian)