“Zhoghovurd” says that as many as five official Armenian delegations have visited Nagorno-Karabakh and met with its president, Bako Sahakian, in the past ten days. The delegations were headed by Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian, parliament speaker Galust Sahakian, Prosecutor-General Gevorg Kostanian, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian and Justice Minister Hovannes Manukian. The paper suggests that the main purpose of these trips was to discuss Karabakh-related implications of Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). In particular, it says, the Armenian officials must have spoken about the possibility of setting up border checkpoints between Armenia and Karabakh.
Political analyst Sergey Minasian tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that the signing of Armenia’s accession treaty with the EEU may be delayed because of Russia’s differences with Belarus and Kazakhstan. But he believes that this and other obstacles to Armenia’s entry into their union are not insurmountable. “Therefore, Armenia is likely to become a full-fledged member of that union before January 1, 2015,” predicts Minasian. He says, though, that the outstanding differences among the bloc’s member states are calling into question its existence in the long run.
“168 Zham” says that representatives of Armenia’s four main opposition parties are promising momentous political developments this autumn which could result in regime change in the country. The paper says that the main purpose of these statements is to scare the Armenian authorities with the possibility of Russian pressure, rather than street protests in Yerevan.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” quotes Prosecutor-General Kostanian as saying at a news conference on Wednesday that he will make sure that no innocent persons are imprisoned in Armenia. “And we naively thought that not jailing innocent people is something that is mandated by the law,” pro-opposition paper comments tartly. “It turns out that it’s not. It is up to the prosecutor-generate to decide on that.”
(Tigran Avetisian)