“Zhamanak” says the Armenian parliament’s approval on Thursday of the state budget for 2017 drafted by the government did not come as a surprise. “In this regard, the spending and revenue targets set by the budget and its overall priorities did not matter,” writes the paper. “For the [ruling] HHK, this is an essentially automatic process because for the HHK the state budget of Armenia is … just a source for financing its shadowy budget.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” sees the first signs of a “political confrontation” between President Serzh Sarkisian and Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, pointing to statements made by the latter in recent days. “Judging from Karen Karapetian’s steps taken in recent days, he is not going to fit into the tactical plan developed by Serzh Sarkisian,” speculates the paper. “He seems to have his own tactic. With his last two public meetings, Karapetian caused a clear gap between himself and the HHK. Quite naturally, he cast himself in a positive light and the HHK in a negative one.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” claims that Karapetian’s approval ratings have already started to fall. The paper says he must be surprised to see such a trend after making a series of bold moves and acting “as if regime change has occurred in the country.” “The problem is that there has been no regime change in Armenia,” it says. “On the contrary, all vicious practices which Karen Karapetian is supposedly combatting have been the norm under the HHK and its irreplaceable leader, Serzh Sarkisian.”
“Zhoghovurd” criticizes Armenia’s law-enforcement agencies, saying that the number of crimes, including fraud and embezzlement, committed in the country has increased this year. “According to experts, that increase has to do with the political and economic situation in the country,” writes the paper. “The deeper the crisis in the government system becomes, the more crimes are committed.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
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