“Haykakan Zhamanak” draws parallels between the current status of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and government pressure that was exerted on Artur Baghdasarian’s Orinats Yerkir Party after it quit the ruling coalition in 2006. Orinats Yerkir returned to the government two years later. The paper wonders if the same fate awaits the BHK.
Petros Makeyan, the leader of a small opposition party aligned in the Armenian National Congress (HAK), tells “168 Zham” that he supports in principle a possible presidential bid by Nikol Pashinian, a prominent opposition figure. “But it’s now hard to say if the HAK will opt for such a solution,” Makeyan says. He says he and his Democratic Fatherland party still hope that HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosian will join the presidential race. Ter-Petrosian can again “consolidate the entire opposition field,” he says.
“Hayots Ashkhar” quotes pollster Gevorg Poghosian as noting that neither Ter-Petrosian nor Robert Kocharian are “particularly active” on the political arena these days. “The first president [Ter-Petrosian] is hardly willing to participate in the forthcoming elections after recent parliamentary and local elections showed that the HAK’s influence and rating has decreased,” says Poghosian. “He is a pragmatic politician and will not join a struggle which he clearly cannot win. Robert Kocharian is no less pragmatic. Nobody likes defeat. This is especially true for the second president [Kocharian,] who has not suffered defeats to date. But nothing should be ruled out in politics.”
“Zhamanak” comments on pundit Hmayak Hovannisian’s revelation that BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian is the one who financed a joint anti-fraud center which his party set up with the HAK and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) during this year’s parliamentary race. The paper is surprised that this statement has not caused a political scandal. “After all, we are talking about an instance of political corruption where one political force effectively hires two other forces, the HAK and Dashnaktsutyun, to use them for its own political programs, anticipating their services in return for its financing,” it claims.
(Aghasi Yenokian)
Petros Makeyan, the leader of a small opposition party aligned in the Armenian National Congress (HAK), tells “168 Zham” that he supports in principle a possible presidential bid by Nikol Pashinian, a prominent opposition figure. “But it’s now hard to say if the HAK will opt for such a solution,” Makeyan says. He says he and his Democratic Fatherland party still hope that HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosian will join the presidential race. Ter-Petrosian can again “consolidate the entire opposition field,” he says.
“Hayots Ashkhar” quotes pollster Gevorg Poghosian as noting that neither Ter-Petrosian nor Robert Kocharian are “particularly active” on the political arena these days. “The first president [Ter-Petrosian] is hardly willing to participate in the forthcoming elections after recent parliamentary and local elections showed that the HAK’s influence and rating has decreased,” says Poghosian. “He is a pragmatic politician and will not join a struggle which he clearly cannot win. Robert Kocharian is no less pragmatic. Nobody likes defeat. This is especially true for the second president [Kocharian,] who has not suffered defeats to date. But nothing should be ruled out in politics.”
“Zhamanak” comments on pundit Hmayak Hovannisian’s revelation that BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian is the one who financed a joint anti-fraud center which his party set up with the HAK and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) during this year’s parliamentary race. The paper is surprised that this statement has not caused a political scandal. “After all, we are talking about an instance of political corruption where one political force effectively hires two other forces, the HAK and Dashnaktsutyun, to use them for its own political programs, anticipating their services in return for its financing,” it claims.
(Aghasi Yenokian)