“Zhoghovurd” suggests that the nomination of Arayik Khandoyan, an arrested member of the Sasna Tsrer group that seized and held for two weeks a police station in Yerevan last month, as a candidate for mayor in his home village of Tsaghkahovit has created a rather interesting situation. “In fact, going against the stance of his ideological colleagues from the Founding Parliament group that refuses to engage in any elections under the current regime, considering it as a play by the rules of the game set by the regime, Khandoyan in a certain sense puts himself beyond the rules of the game set by the Founding Parliament. But in any case, Khandoyan’s step opens up a new field for activities for the Founding Parliament and gives it an opportunity to boost its political activities even if Khandoyan eventually gets deprived of the opportunity of serving as a mayor despite winning the election because of his being imprisoned,” the paper says.
“Hraparak” writes that the very concept of being a prisoner has been devalued in Armenia over recent years. “Once serving a term in prison had two main meanings in public perception – either you are a criminal that one should be cautious of or a political prisoner that one should respect. But over years because of the vicious activities of the system of criminal justice the public attitude towards these two groups has totally changed. In short, being a prisoner has become a vague notion – neither a criminal is a real criminal, nor a political prisoner is a true fighter for his ideas,” the paper claims.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” comments on the economic growth data published by the National Statistical Service (NSS), calling it a “fantasy genre”. “The thing is that our economic growth and decline are estimated by the data of the NSS rather than by the data of the customs agency. And that explains why the NSS data are always ‘fattier’ than the data of other agencies. Surely, the NSS has explanations of that, a mystical explanation that the agency attaches to any suspicious data – a change of methodology. But this change of methodology has never led to a downward revision of data. Any change of methodology has always led to growth,” the daily observes.
(Tatevik Lazarian)