Speaking to “168 Zham,” Stanislav Tarasov, a Russian commentator, speculates that the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach any agreements at their latest meeting held in Brussels this week. “Judging from the fact that they said a meeting of the [Armenian and Azerbaijani] presidents is possible this year, they did not manage to reach agreements and there are issues that need to be solved by the heads of state,” he claims.
Interviewed by “Hayots Ashkhar,” an Armenian analyst, Suren Sargsian, notes that just two days before the Brussels talks Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Istanbul. “I think Tillerson told Aliyev that there is no alternative to peace negotiations and that the parties must negotiate on a quick and peaceful resolution of the [Karabakh] conflict,” he says. “There is significant international pressure exerted on Azerbaijan on this issue as well. As for the meeting of the foreign ministers, it is very important that talks are continuing because their absence would mean an intensification of hostilities.”
“Aravot” comments on controversy caused by the Armenian Central Bank’s plans to introduce new dram banknotes that will carry the pictures of other prominent Armenians, some of whom never lived in Armenia. The paper is at a loss to understand why the bank wants to remove the pictures of the 20th century Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents, writers Hovannes Tumanian and Avetik Isahakian and painter Martiros Sarian by other individuals. “What is the point of that ‘rotation?’ It’s totally incomprehensible. They key thing for ordinary people is to buy as many goods with those banknotes as possible, rather than what is depicted on the banknotes.”
“Nobody understands why [the picture of] Charents is to be replaced by [Paruyr] Sevak, Tumanian by William Saroyan, Isahakian by Komitas, Sarian by [Ivan] Ayvazovsky,” writes “Hraparak.” “Is it worth putting the pictures of a Russian painter, an American novelist and a Soviet chess player on dram notes? After all, the world has different traditions.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
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