(Saturday, March 3)
“Hraparak” addresses claims that Armenia’s president-elect Armen Sarkissian did not qualify to run for the post in the first place as he did not meet the citizenship requirement under the country’s new Constitution. The daily’s editor writes: “As a person I can understand those people who say that it does not matter when Armen Sarkissian renounced his British citizenship – in 2012 or in 2014. But there is one thing that we must decide: are the laws there to be respected or are they written only to be broken later? If our goal is to make a better use of the Diaspora’s potential, then perhaps this restriction should not have been included in the Constitution. But if it was and there was no way to avoid it, then be so kind as to observe the letter of the law. This will help restrain the temptation of anyone to break the law.”
The editor of “Aravot” sees a link between President Serzh Sarkisian’s March 1 cancellation of the 2009 Turkish-Armenian diplomatic protocols that have for years been opposed by segments of the far-flung Armenian Diaspora and the March 2 election by the National Assembly of Armen Sarkissian, a man who enjoys broad Diaspora support, as Armenia’s next, largely ceremonial president. “When the new Constitution was still being discussed, there was the idea that representatives of Diaspora structures should also participate in the election of the president. Subsequently, this idea was abandoned. Despite the fact that for 26 years we have spoken about the importance of the Diaspora, as a 10-million-strong people scattered around the world we, Armenians, have not yet found an algorithm for cooperation. I don’t think that everything will change in this respect immediately. But perhaps Armen Sarkissian will start searching for this algorithm.”
In its editorial titled “Arms Race Against Armenia” “Haykakan Zhamanak” suggests that Armenians must have followed the March 1 address of Russian President Vladimir Putin to top Russian legislators with at least the same interest as they followed the top domestic political event of that day – the presidential election in parliament. The paper reminds its readers that a considerable part of Putin’s speech was devoted to Russia’s new weapons, including its nuclear arsenal. “The implications of this speech will directly influence Armenia,” writes the Armenian daily’s editor, adding that the public demand for militarization in Russia will led to the country’s greater involvement in the arms race. “And Russia is our main foreign trade partner. The decline in the Russian population’s purchasing power will reduce the demand for our goods. This will also affect private remittances from Russia to Armenia. Obviously, sanctions will primarily hit the Russian military-industrial complex, and Russia is the main, if not the only, supplier of arms to Armenia. In short, the expected consequences of Putin’s words will hit Armenia where it hurts most – exports, private remittances, foreign investment and arms supplies. So, it’s not surprising that the Armenian society was, at the very least, no less interested in watching Putin’s speech than in following whom Sarkisian will appoint president.”
(Tatev Danielian)