Press Review

“Zhoghovurd” says that having secured “some signals of support” from Russia and the West ahead of Armenia’s presidential election, President Serzh Sarkisian needs to do everything “to satisfy both sides as much as possible.” “Whether or not Serzh Sarkisian likes it, he will have to underpin his promises given to the two sides with concrete actions,” writes the paper. “In this sense, the internal agenda of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir will be quite challenging.”

“Hayots Ashkhar” says some Armenia parties are now “trying to use big foreign powers’ interest” in Armenia for domestic political purposes. “One becomes even more disappointed when it emerges that a party supposedly concerned with the fate of the nation and the state is in fact a slave of external forces serving the interests of various geopolitical poles,” says the pro-government daily.

“Zhamanak” says that with its decision not to participate in the upcoming presidential election the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) only “froze” its active involvement in the political life. The paper says that the BHK may still tell supporters what to do in the ballot. “And there are quite a few such voters,” it says. “The BHK got approximately 500,000 votes in the [May] parliamentary elections. Those 500,000 voters will either stay at home or back someone else.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” blasts municipal authorities’ response to recent days’ heavy snowfall in Yerevan, saying that sidewalks across the city remain covered by ice and pointing to serious disruptions in public transport. “In connection with this, the Yerevan Mayor’s Office yesterday issued a statement containing information about work done with large amounts of salt and hundreds of snow-clearing vehicles and other equipment,” says the paper. “Naturally, all that will be included in the municipality’s financial report. But no report will mention what was described above.”

(Aghasi Yenokian)