“Zhoghovurd” quotes Nagorno-Karabakh’s prime minister, Arayik Harutiunian, as saying that international mediators’ peace proposals praised by Armenia are unacceptable to the authorities in Stepanakert. The paper notes that the Karabakh Armenian leadership has long made clear its opposition to the so-called lands-for-status formula favored by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. “It will be interesting to see how this dilemma will be solved if Karabakh continues to reject the variant under discussion,” it says. It also wonders why President Serzh Sarkisian has not convinced the Karabakh Armenians to drop their objections to what he has publicly described as a reasonable compromise.
Konstantin Zatulin, a Russian pundit and former parliamentarian, tells “168 Zham” that Moscow does not want to see any decline in its role and presence in the South Caucasus. “Unfortunately, the existing facts are that Azerbaijan sharply increased arms purchases from Russia and it may well be that the military balance [in the Karabakh conflict] was somewhat disrupted because of that,” he says. “[Recent] Russian arms supplies to Armenia indirectly testify to that fact. If we sold weapons only to Azerbaijan and did not give or sell weapons to Armenia, we would undermine the balance. The challenge is to maintain it.” Russia is “using” that balance in its policy towards the Karabakh dispute, adds Zatulin.
“Zhamanak” says that opposition forces that failed to win seats in Armenia’s new parliament “seem to be recovering from their post-election shock.” “They have started to speak up little by little,” writes the paper. “Not all of them, of course. The former ORO alliance -- and one of its leaders, Raffi Hovannisian, in particular -- is more active right now, even if Seyran Ohanian (another ORO leader) also does not miss opportunities to address the public.”
“Aravot” complains that pro-government and opposition politicians go out of their way to stress what they think must be done in Armenia but will not specify how. “They must put an end to meaningless air fluctuations,” the paper says.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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