“Zhamanak” reports that Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian attacked opposition forces “in a quite aggressive way” during a parliament session on Wednesday. The paper says the harsh criticism came as a surprise given the fact that the four opposition parties represented in the National Assembly have essentially avoided personal attacks on Abrahamian in their ongoing anti-government campaign. They have even made clear that they will not seek a parliamentary vote of no confidence in Abrahamian and his cabinet.
“It is this situation that may have well emboldened Hovik Abrahamian,” speculates “Zhamanak.” “That is, the non-governing forces have enabled him to take such a tough stance and even reined them in, thereby reinforcing his positions in the government. After all, this is what the activities of the non-governing forces have amounted to: making Hovik Abrahamian prime minister in place of Tigran Sarkisian … Hovik Abrahamian does need to reinforce his positions now because his government has not managed to achieve anything for the past several months.”
“168 Zham” comments on the government’s official response to a list of 12 demands that was issued by the four parliamentary minority parties in June. The paper says that a government statement issued on Wednesday amounts to a polite rejection of the opposition’s “false agenda.” It says that the agenda is “false” because the four parties have never clarified what they will do if their demands are rejected.
“Aravot” reacts to a revelation that Suren Khachatrian, the newly reappointed governor of Armenia’s Syunik region notorious for his criminal record and violent behavior, has received a doctoral degree from an unknown institution in or our outside Armenia. The paper says this fact underscores a dramatic “devaluation” of post-graduate education in the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. “There are many reasons for that, and one of them is our officials’ irresistible penchant for science,” it says with sarcasm. “They need a doctoral degree to prove that they are not crooks, thugs or uneducated individuals.” The paper is convinced that this is a waste of money and time on their part because such degrees have become worthless.
“The Armenian authorities seemed to be unprepared to speak of a new [legal] framework for relations with the European Union,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper says that almost one year after pledging to deepen those relations in a joint statement with the EU President Serzh Sarkisian and his government have still not taken any meaningful steps in that direction.
(Tigran Avetisian)