“I want us to live in peace with the Azerbaijanis,” writes the “Aravot” editor, Aram Abrahamian. “How is that possible now that the neighboring state seeks to subject the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to genocide? It made its intentions clear with its actions taken in early April. We can achieve that [peace] only by launching powerful military strikes against the Azerbaijani state. Strikes that would force Azerbaijan’s leadership to understand just how dangerous a war is. We cannot force Azerbaijan to capitulate. But the Artsakh army can create, with the help of all Armenians, the kind of a situation on the frontlines that would force Azerbaijan to ask the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for peace.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says that President Serzh Sarkisian blasted senior members of his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) for not responding to domestic criticism of the Armenian military response to the April 2 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh when he met with them on Wednesday. “Serzh Sarkisian is wrong to berate his teammates,” comments the paper. “He should be unhappy with himself in the first instance because he himself formed that team, usually giving preference to quiet opportunists and cowards. That worked for him until everything was alright … Now times have changed but his team hasn’t.”
“Zhamanak” has serious misgivings about the government’s plans to possibly restrict imports of Turkish goods to Armenia. “The government has found the most important problem facing Armenia’s economy after the four-day war [in Karabakh,]” the paper comments with sarcasm. It says the government is ignoring real economic problems that have long hampered the country’s development.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has stopped the publication of weekly data on its monetary interventions in the domestic currency market that greatly affect the Armenian dram’s exchange rate. “One should now expect that the CBA will also declare information about our foreign reserves top secrets,” says the paper.
(Tigran Avetisian)