“Zhoghovurd” condemns the judges presiding over the ongoing three trials of radical opposition members accused of plotting or attempting armed revolts against Armenia’s leadership. The paper claims that instead of administering justice they are helping the authorities to take “political revenge.” It also accuses the judges of acting on government orders to create “inhuman conditions” for the defendants.
In an interview with “Aravot,” the parliamentary leader of the ruling Republican Party (HHK), Vahram Baghdasarian, downplays the significance of Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin’s calls for Armenia to adopt Russian as its second official language. “The Russian Duma speaker was not aware that students in Armenia’s schools are taught the Russian language from the second grade,” says Baghdasarian. “There is no issue of making Russian a state language in Armenia,” he adds. “The [Armenian] language is our national value. There can be only one official language in the Republic of Armenia: Armenian. This is our position, which was presented by us and accepted by our Russian partners.”
Baghdasarian goes on to dismiss calls by a leader of the opposition Yelk alliance, Edmon Marukian, for Armenia’s withdrawal from the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). “We cannot harm a family that was created with great difficulties,” he says. “We have made a lot of progress in that family and must stick with it.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that the Armenian government on Thursday granted tax breaks to a private agricultural firm whose shareholders include two sons of Vartan Harutiunian, the head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC). Each of them holds a 17 percent stake in the company called Green Farmer. The latter has pledged to invest more than $2 million in new fruit orchards to be created in Armenia’s Ararat province. “Once again, the government is giving privileges to a company belonging to relatives of a high-ranking official,” complains the paper.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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