“Zhoghovurd” is encouraged by official statistics showing that the Armenian economy has continued to grow despite the recent political turmoil in the country. But the paper urges Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other government officials to be careful in touting the latest figures released by Armenia’s Statistical Committee. “The society has long lost faith in official statistics because of the former authorities,” it says. “And now a vast segment of the society is not inclined to believe these authorities’ figures either and has its own standards for gauging the government’s performance. Have their living standards improved? Have their incomes risen?”
“Aravot” comments on Pashinian’s revelation that the brother of a former senior Armenian official not named by him holds $30 million in a single bank account in Armenia. “Having $30 million or even $30 billion in your bank account is not a crime in itself,” writes the paper. “It must be proved that the money was acquired illegally. If [Pashinian] referred to [Serzh Sarkisian’s brother] Aleksandr Sarkisian then nobody will doubt that he would not have accumulated such a huge sum had he not been the former president’s brother. But it’s one thing to suspect and another to investigate, indict, try and sentence.”
“Hraparak” says lawyers and other pundits are now trying to make sense of Pashinian’s plans to create “bodies of transitional justice” in Armenia. The paper says that some of them have already spoken out against or in favor of the idea even though “nobody has any idea what exactly it involves.” “One does not need to have much legal and historical knowledge to realize that no matter how much we want it we cannot say that we are in the process of transition from one social order to another which necessitates transitional bodies.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that the former ruling HHK and former President Robert Kocharian planned a coordinated “attack” on the new government ahead of a rally held by Pashinian on Friday. The paper linked to Pashinian says they hoped that the rally will not draw a huge crowd. “The August 17 rally completely precluded that scenario and a second pre-planned scenario was put in motion,” it says. “At the heart of that scenario was parliament speaker Ara Babloyan’s [video] address. The most important part of that speech is that he is planning to discuss the existing situation with representatives of foreign diplomatic missions. In other words, Kocharian’s team is going to organize external pressures on the government. But this is a wrong calculation. No major foreign power will even try to blackmail the government enjoying an unprecedented level of popular support for the sake of preserving the freedom and assets of several persons.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
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