(Saturday, July 21)
“Zhamanak” welcomes Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s claim that Russia can prevent a war in Nagorno-Karabakh because it has strong leverage against Azerbaijan. “Thus Nikol Pashinian placed responsibility for Azerbaijan’s actions on Russia,” comments the paper. It says Pashinian is sending “complementary tough messages to Brussels and Moscow,” speculating that he wants the Russians to appreciate his criticism of the European Union with concrete gestures on the security front. “These complementary messages are undoubtedly based on the legitimacy of his government,” it says.
“Hraparak” says that Armenia has grown very dependent on Russia because of grave security challenges facing it. The paper says the new Armenian government needs to address this problem.
“Aravot” says that deputy parliament speaker Arpine Hovannisian was wrong to seemingly insult Daniel Ioannisian, a member of a government working group dealing with electoral reform, during a recent discussion in the Armenian parliament. “That is certainly condemnable,” writes the paper. “It’s wrong to insult anyone, be it a deputy, a worker, an entrepreneur or an unemployed person. But let’s look at a diametrically opposite scenario and assume that Daniel Ioannisian or another Pashinian ally branded an HHK member as ‘mentally retarded.’ How would Facebook Armenians react to that?” The paper believes that they would hail such insults. Nor would the country’s leading civic groups issue a joint statement condemning them, it says.
Meanwhile, Davit Harutiunian, a senior member of the former ruling HHK, tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that despite their lingering differences the government and the parliamentary forces now agree on “many conceptual issues” relating to electoral reform.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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