“Haykakan Zhamanak” carries an interview with Rita Avetisian, whose sister Hasmik was one of the seven members of an Armenian family in Gyumri murdered in January, ahead of the first trial of a Russian soldier charged with perpetrating the massacre. She says that relatives of the victims will attend the court hearings even though a Russian military court in Armenia will try the soldier, Valery Permyakov, only charges of desertion. The murder case itself will be dealt with by Armenian courts.
“Hraparak” reports on an intensifying conflict between Vartan Ayvazian, a senior Armenian pro-government lawmaker, and residents of an Armenian-populated village in Georgia adjacent to a lake which Ayvazian wants to turn into a fish farm owned by him. The paper says that local residents have been unable to catch fish there ever since the lake was privatized by Ayvazian’s Lcher company last year. Fishing has long been one of their main sources of income. The paper says that villagers’ attempts to resume fishing there provoked a police crackdown earlier this week. The police detained three people and confiscated four fishing boats.
“Zhoghovurd” reports on what it describes as illegal logging taking place in the village of Karchaghbyur in Armenia’s Gegharkunik region. The paper cites local residents as saying that several truckloads of wood leave the area close to Lake Sevan every day. It says relevant authorities in Yerevan have told it that the logging operations were authorized but refused to specify who is behind them.
(Hovannes Movsisian)