“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” comments on the upcoming opposition rally in Yerevan which the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) has decided not to attend because of its differences with three other opposition parties organizing it. The paper says that unlike Dashnaktsutyun, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the Armenian National Congress and the Zharangutyun party believe that constitutional amendments planned by President Serzh Sarkisian are aimed at prolonging his rule.
“168 Zham” notes that the four parties are not demanding yet the government’s resignation despite the fact that none of their 12 demands issued in June has been satisfied by the Armenian authorities. The paper says this is so because the BHK is reluctant to seek Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian’s sacking in view of the latter’s close personal ties with BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian. It wonders what the BHK, the HAK and Zharangutyun will do after their October 10 rally in Yerevan. It predicts that Tsarukian’s party will remain reluctant to openly call for President Sarkisian’s resignation.
“Zhamanak” points to former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian’s remark that the BHK, of which he is a senior member, can do on its own what it has been doing together with the three other parties but is closely cooperating with them in a gesture of good will. “Oskanian is making clear who is the boss in the quartet, which has just been reduced to a trio, and saying that it is the departing forces, rather than the BHK, that will suffer,” comments the paper. “And this is a simple reality … Dashnaktsutyun simply was not convinced that Gagik Tsarukian will share things [with it.] Or perhaps they did not agree on the size of its share. Or the [ruling] HHK offered [Dashnaktsutyun] more.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” says that the first “split” within the opposition quartet was inevitable. “It’s not just we who predicted such a thing,” writes the pro-presidential paper. “That was visible to many people and, first of all, to those who are involved in the process. Namely, representatives of the HAK, the BHK, Zharangutyun and Dashnaktsutyun.”
(Tigran Avetisian)