(Saturday, October 29)
Armenian newspapers write about internal political rearrangements taking place not least because of expectations of former beleaguered heavyweight Gagik Tsarukian’s return to politics.
“Hayots Ashkhar” suggests that it is the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) formerly led by Tsarukian that is most interested in the tycoon’s political comeback. “Without Tsarukian this party resembles a ship without a sail. And though we believe that the BHK will have no problems clearing the election hurdle at the next parliamentary elections, it will hardly be able to solve more serious problems [without Tsarukian],” writes the newspaper, reminding its readers that in the 2012 elections the then Tsarukian-led BHK managed to win the votes of a major part of the opposition electorate and play a “stabilizing” role in Armenian politics.
“Zhoghovurd” sees next spring’s parliamentary elections and elections to Yerevan’s City Council as a double challenge for Armenia’s opposition. “The fact that the elections will be held one after the other puts especially opposition parties in a difficult situation. Armenia’s opposition parties, which have difficulties in solving their financial issues, will have to first spend on a campaign in the parliamentary elections and then also try to raise funds for municipal elections where the electoral deposit will be set at 3 million drams (about $6,300),” writes the daily, adding that opposition parties are also likely to experience shortage of candidates to be fielded in both elections.
“Aravot” suggests that while the appointment of Karen Karapetian as Armenia’s new prime minister in September provided some moderate “heat” to Armenian politics it managed to avert a really “hot political autumn” in Armenia. “Karapetian’s dispatch from Moscow is likely to have exactly been aimed at preventing political heat in Armenia, because there were opinions that a hot political autumn in Armenia could also turn ‘colored’,” writes the daily, using the term coined in Russia to mean Western-inspired revolutions in former Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries.
“Hraparak” cites its inside sources in reporting about a “conflict between government newcomers and old-timers”. It writes: “In a number of agencies newly appointed leaders want to bring in ‘their people’ to the staffs, agree such personnel changes with the prime minister, but at the last moment the presidential office intervenes and ‘stops’ the change. There is also a group of veteran bureaucrats who have played a significant role in the formation of the institutions in question and know all its nuances, so they will still be needed for the authorities in the future. Therefore, while ministers are subject to change, these bureaucrats are not.”
(Artur Papian)
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