“Zhoghovurd” comments on the announcement by Russia’s Defense Ministry that Russian and Armenian soldiers will hold a joint military parade in Yerevan next May to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War Two. The paper denounces as “offensive” the Russian participation in the planned parade. It also attacks the Armenian Defense Ministry for saying nothing about the information.
According to “Zhamanak,” it is incorrect to speak of a split between Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) and Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) because they were never bound by any formal agreements in the first place. The paper claims that the two opposition forces have never had a “common strategy” of taking on President Serzh Sarkisian. “A wish to see Serzh Sarkisian ousted has nothing to do with a common strategy,” it says. “A strategy cannot be so narrow. A strategy could and should apply to a vision.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” quotes Razmik Zohrabian, a deputy chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), as saying that Moscow is unhappy with opposition protests in Yerevan and could even help Sarkisian end them. “Surely Razmik Zohrabian is publicizing the opinion of the HHK and Serzh Sarkisian in particular,” comments the pro-opposition paper. “In other words, [from the HHK perspective] either there must be no regime change in Armenia at all or there can only be a regime change that is acceptable to Russia. And that means that from now on it is Russia that will decide what the Armenian people want. At least this is how the HHK is presenting the situation.”
Vahram Baghdasarian, the HHK’s parliamentary leader, tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that despite Sarkisian’s latest overtures to the Armenian opposition the latter must not expect the government to meet all of its demands. “Do they want us to further increase our external debt by begging for more money?” he says. “How can the people respect such a government?”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that the Central Bank of Armenia on Tuesday stepped up its hard currency interventions in the market to prevent a depreciation of the Armenian dram. “In the past ten days alone the Central Bank has injected $28 million in the market,” reports the paper. “But analysts believe that its intervention can prevent the dram from weakening only if there are no fundamental reasons for depreciation.”
(Tigran Avetisian)