“Hayots Ashkhar” comments on a joint statement that was issued by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French Secretary of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir after the latest meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents that was hosted by them in Vienna on Monday. “It is not difficult to notice that the wordings contained in the statement are much closer to Armenia’s positions with regard to the 1994 ceasefire agreement and introduction of a mechanism for investigating border incidents,” writes the paper. “But it would probably be wrong to jump into conclusions now because we know our enemy all too well.” This is why, it says, President Serzh Sarkisian voiced “certain reservations” about the Vienna agreements when he spoke to journalists shortly after the talks.
“The very fact of the meeting [in Vienna] was positive in itself,” writes “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun.” “At least, Azerbaijan gave assurances that it is in favor of maintaining the ceasefire and does not aim to solve the Karabakh issue by military means. True, broadly speaking, these assurances are not worth a penny. But at any rate, they are better than nothing. Secondly, they seem to have reached an agreement on new mechanisms for monitoring the ceasefire regime on the Line of Contact. Azerbaijan had long opposed that. Russia too had not been enthusiastic about that idea. Now they do not seem to object. Thirdly, it was made clear at the meeting that we are talking about maintaining the 1994-1995 truce, rather than agreeing a new one. Those [1994-1995] documents were also signed by a representative of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” also sees “negative” aspects for the Armenian side. “The most important of them is the fact that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group failed to condemn the Azerbaijani aggression and pretended not to know who started April war [in Karabakh,]” says the paper.
“Zhamanak” reports that the Armenian Ministry of Economy has appealed to the media to help it identify and expose de facto economic monopolies abusing their dominant positions in various sectors of the national economy. The paper ridicules the move as a “circus,” saying that the Armenian authorities have more than enough authority, anti-trust agencies and other levers to ensure fair business competition on their own.
(Tigran Avetisian)