(Saturday, October 4)
Citing a statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, “168 Zham” predicts that President Serzh Sarkisian will sign on Friday Armenia’s accession treaty with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The paper stands by its view that membership in the Russian-led alliance will not give Armenia any economic benefits and will only limit its sovereignty. It is disappointed with the failure of the country’s main opposition forces to try to get Sarkisian to reverse his decision to join the EEU which was made just over a year ago.
“Zhamanak” agrees that “in all likelihood” the accession treaty will be signed at the EEU summit in Minsk. The paper says that the real terms of Armenia’s entry into the EEU will be defined not by that treaty but by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “whims.” “Therefore no agreement signed within the framework of the EEU should be taken seriously because Putin’s whims could change that agreement at any moment,” it says.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” dismisses as “false and unfounded” suggestions that with their ongoing campaign of anti-government protests the main Armenian parliamentary parties challenging Sarkisian are only adding to grave threats facing Armenia. “This doesn’t mean that they must hold nonstop rallies and turn central Yerevan into a [Ukrainian-style] ‘maydan,’” writes the pro-opposition paper. “Not at all. One just shouldn’t scare and fool people with false arguments. As soon as Azerbaijan feels that it is able to win a war [for Karabakh] it will attack, regardless of whether there is a nonstop rally or children paint butterflies with chalks in [Yerevan’s] Liberty Square.” It says that snap national elections would on the contrary put Armenia in a better position to confront its challenges.
“Hraparak” blames the Sarkisian administration for last week’s decision by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) to appoint an allegedly pro-Azerbaijani rapporteur on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “The person occupying the post of foreign minister for six years, his diplomatic corps and the Armenian parliamentary delegation at the PACE have proved powerless to thwart that, exposing their ineptness,” alleges the paper.
(Tigran Avetisian)