“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” describes as an “information bomb” President Serzh Sarkisian’s interview with the Bloomberg news agency published on Monday. “The main points of his interview are as follows,” writes the paper. “First, in 2011 Armenia agreed to withdraw from five liberated districts [around Nagorno-Karabakh] without an agreement on Karabakh’s status, Second, during the four-day war [in Karabakh] Armenia lost territory. Third, there is no place for Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone. Fourth, a war in Karabakh could resume at any moment, and there is little prospect for peacefully resolving the conflict.”
“Why is Sarkisian declaring this now?” continues the pro-opposition daily. “Does he want to restart from scratch and publicly talk to the society on Karabakh from now on? Or does he think that the danger is gone and he can safely publicize that.”
“Zhamanak” quotes Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian saying over the weekend that Armenia’s armed forces do not need additional funding for more weapons acquisitions and have already received “necessary sums” for that purpose. “If this is the case, then why is Armenia going to buy more weapons from Russia with a $200 million [Russian] loan, instead of paying upfront?”
“168 Zham” is impressed with Sunday’s ceremony in Yerevan during which a prominent humanitarian worker from Burundi, Marguerite Barankitse, received the inaugural international Aurora Prize created in memory of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. The paper says the noble motives of prominent Diaspora Armenians who created the price contrast with the practices and values of Armenia’s current rulers.
(Anush Mkrtchian)