“Aravot” ridicules Russian commentators who have reacted angrily to the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Armenia and the European Union. “These and other displays of jealousy and venomous comments addressed to us by Russia’s not-at-all-independent media are especially surprising now that the Kremlin says that it has no problem with that agreement,” writes the paper. “Either [Russian] propagandists have not received corresponding orders or their leadership says one thing in public but stirs up something else from behind the scenes.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says that President Serzh Sarkisian’s desire to extend his rule was one of the main reasons why the CEPA was signed last week. “Before launching an assault on the government in 2018 Serzh Sarkisian is demonstrating to the European Union and the West in general that he is open to cooperation with them and that if the West attempts to impede his ‘reproduction’ in 2018 it will have to do business with pro-Russian [Prime Minister] Karen Karapetian,” explains the paper. “And if Russia attempts to impede his reproduction it will have to do so through Karen Karapetian. These latest developments have shown that Karapetian does not have sufficient clout to thwart the signing of the CEPA and is therefore unfit for the role of the protector of Moscow’s interests in Armenia.”
Interviewed by “168 Zham,” Nicu Popescu, a Paris-based political analyst, describes the CEPA as a “big achievement for Armenia and the EU given the circumstances in which Armenia had abandoned the Association Agreement” with the EU in 2013. “But it would be wrong to say that this represents some kind of association with the EU because Armenia will not have the kind of relationship with the EU which Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova have,” he says.
“Hraparak” claims that pro-European groups in Armenia have only now revolted against their country’s membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The paper considers this reaction overdue and says those groups should now focus instead on the implementation of the new EU-Armenia agreement. They should “force the authorities to take real steps in that direction so that the document does not remain on paper,” it says.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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