“Everyone is convinced that Serzh Sarkisian’s becoming prime-minister is a forgone conclusion but they won’t announce it now so that the public mood does not deteriorate,” writes “Zhamanak.” “But seriously speaking, the situation is simply weird because we have a party that won the [2017] parliamentary elections but that party still has no answer to the question of prime minister. But this weird, in the classical sense, situation is totally normal from the standpoint of Armenia’s realities. The circle of decision-makers is very narrow while that of factors behind decisions very broad here.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” recalls in this regard Sarkisian’s April 2014 declaration that he will not seek to become prime minister if Armenia is transformed into a parliamentary republic. The paper accuses him of breaking that pledge. “It’s a fact,” it says, adding that as prime minister Sarkisian will be “the country’s full-fledged monarch.”
“Zhoghovurd” writes about controversy sparked by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian’s use of a private jet during his recent trip to Davos, Switzerland. The paper publishes a government document which it says disproves a government claim that Karapetian’s travel expenses were not covered from the state budget.
“Aravot” reacts to Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili’s pledge to crack down on reputed crime figures commonly known as “thieves-in-law” in the former Soviet Union. “Many of our compatriots have seized upon that, saying that ‘this is the way to go’ and ‘we had better do the same,’” writes the paper’s editor, Aram Abrahamian. “I like many things happening in Georgia. But this particular statement is populism and empty talk and/or a promise of illegal measures. No criminal code in the world legally defines a thief-in-law. There are individuals who are suspected, accused, wanted or sentenced for concrete crimes. If a reputed thief-in-law has committed a crime then they must be prosecuted on charges defined by the law. If they have not or if they have been convicted [of a crime] and have already served a prison sentence then they have the same rights as all other citizens.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
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