“Aravot” says that for all the criticism of its many young and inexperienced members the new Armenian parliament is better than the previous ones. “The number of oligarchs [in the parliament] has drastically decreased while that of women, young people and scholars has gone up,” argues the paper. It is particularly enthusiastic about the newly elected parliamentarians who are too young to remember the Soviet times.
“Granted, there is [Gagik Tsarukian’s] Prosperous Armenia Party in the National Assembly, which represents the old political system,” “Aravot” goes on. “There are likeable people, including Tsarukian, in that party. But let us acknowledge that the situation where a rich person keeps a party and decides everything single-handedly based on his interests is simply outdated.”
“Hraparak” reacts to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s statement to the effect that critics of the disgraced General Manvel Grigorian or other groups of the population must not block streets or roads in protest against something. Pashinian said this week that they do not have a popular mandate to take such actions at will because Armenians now have a democratically elected government that has different obligations to them. The paper questions Pashinian’s “contentious” logic, citing counterarguments that Pashinian and his team themselves heavily relied on street blockades when they toppled the country’s former government and came to power last year.
“Zhamanak” says that the presidents of Russia and other “Eurasian” countries such as Belarus and Kazakhstan have congratulated Pashinian on being reappointed as Armenia’s prime minister on Monday. They did not send congratulatory messages after Pashinian’s My Step alliance won the December 9 parliamentary elections. “Does this testify to a change in their attitudes towards Armenia?” writes the paper. “Of course not. It’s just that the absence of congratulations in this case (i.e., Pashinian’s reappointment) would have testified to a conflict-like situation for which the Eurasian Economic Union member statements would have been responsible … So the congratulations rather reflect the existing problems than their resolution, and Yerevan should be better prepared for difficult discussions than friendly treatment by the EEU.”
(Sargis Harutyunyan)
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