“Haykakan Zhamanak” criticizes unusually tight security in and around a court building Yerevan where 14 men are standing on trial for the July 2016 on a police station in the city’s Erebuni district. In particular, the paper points to the deployment of masked police officers armed with assault rifles. “One is getting the impression that law-enforcement bodies feel some threat,” it says.
Interviewed by “Aravot,” Lydumila Sargsian, a former opposition parliamentarian, dismisses opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian’s calls for an anti-government “velvet revolution” in Armenia. “In countries like Armenia, extraparliamentary opposition forces can never carry out a velvet revolution,” she says. “Furthermore, such revolutions are a government tool.” She claims that such statements can only lead to more popular disillusionment and undermine public trust in the opposition.
A Russian political analyst, Konstantin Kalachev, is asked by “168 Zham” to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s claim that some forces are keen to turn the European Union’s Eastern Partnership program into an “anti-Russian project.” Kalachev claims that Lavrov’s statement is a warning to Armenia which he says “continues to be torn between Russia and Europe.” He also points to the planned signing of a new accord between Armenia and the EU. “Serzh Sarkisian is faced with a dilemma: to sign or not to sign the framework agreement with the EU?” he claims.
“Hraparak” says that there are many people in Armenia who “do nothing but have very high incomes.” The paper says that opposition lawmakers are therefore right to question the wisdom of paying Armenian judges much high salaries than are earned by schoolteachers, doctors and other public sector employees. “After all, we need not only justice but also a good system of education and healthcare,” it says. “Such a wage disparity creates an atmosphere of social injustice.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
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