“Zhamanak” welcomes plans by the opposition Hanrapetutyun (Republic), Civil Contract and Bright Armenia parties to form an electoral alliance. But, the paper says, this would only mark the first step towards forming “new qualities and content for opposition activity” in the country.
“Aravot” also address the possible consolidation of the three opposition forces, calling it a “positive fact.” “It is positive that [Civil Contract leader] Nikol Pashinian and [Bright Armenia leader] Edmon Marukian have managed to forget their recent semi-personal spat,” editorializes the paper. “Politics is not the right place for loving or hating each other or looking like a good fellow. Politics is a setting for implementing programs. It is positive that they have decided to unite their resources. It is positive that they will not wait and see when Gagik Tsarukian will return to politics so that they can enter into his alliance or, to put it bluntly, get money from him.” It says that other opposition forces would be wrong to call this new alliance a “government project.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” blames Prime Minister Karen Karapetian for an economic downturn registered by Armenia’s National Statistical Service (NSS) in the third quarter of this year. “Apparently, the new government has not stimulated economic development well enough,” the pro-opposition daily comments tartly. “Instead, Karen Karapetian and his new ministers have done a brilliant job on the political front: they joined the [ruling] HHK. What else can they do if nothing works out in their areas of responsibility?”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” quotes unnamed state officials as saying that the economic situation in Armenia could improve only in case of a sharp rise in worker remittances from abroad. “The thing is that economic complications in Armenia begin when the remittances fall,” writes the paper. “Simply put, our economy’s dependence on the remittances is extremely high and that dependence can decrease only as a result of structural changes in our economy,” it goes on. “However, there are no visible prospects for such changes yet.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
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