“Zhamanak” comments on Russia’s latest initiative aimed at resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or at least preventing its renewed escalation. Reports in the Russian press have cited concrete peace proposals which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take to Yerevan later this week. The paper notes that Lavrov reportedly presented the conflicting parties with a similar peace plan in September. It is worried that Moscow is pushing for a pro-Azerbaijani solution to the conflict and says that Armenia and Karabakh must therefore scuttle the Russian initiative.
According to “Zhoghovurd,” the April 2-5 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrated that there are still many Armenians willing to fight for the region despite being disappointed and let down by their rulers. The paper says that the Armenian authorities have for years failed to fully utilize this patriotic sentiment in the conflict with Azerbaijan. It says the latest escalation in Karabakh must force them to finally change ways.
“Hraparak” questions the wisdom of fundraising activities and dispatches of relief aid to Karabakh that have been organized by various Armenian groups and individuals in the past two weeks. “One gets the impression that we are back in the year 1914 when stateless Armenians took over the task of arming and feeding their army,” comments the paper.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” notes that Mihran Poghosian, the head of Armenia’s Service for the Mandatory Execution of Judicial Acts (SMEJA), resigned two weeks after strongly denying having secret offshore accounts that were disclosed by the Panama Papers. “How can one step down because of [what they call] untrue reports?” asks the paper. “One might think that this offshore affair is unprecedented for Armenia. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Offshore companies have long been stuck to our economy like leeches, greedily sucking our country’s blood. Even official statistics makes that clear. Offshore firms account for a large part of foreign direct investment in Armenia.”
(Tigran Avetisian)