“Zhamanak” says that Armenian leaders have toughened their rhetoric on Nagorno-Karabakh since the January 22 meeting of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held in Davos. In particular, Pashinian has ruled out any “lands-for-peace” settlement with Baku. This leads the paper to suggest that no pressure was exerted on Pashinian at Davos. It sees a strengthening of Yerevan’s positions in the Karabakh negotiation process.
“Zhoghovurd” says that the United States has been more active than usual in that process of late. “And this process is personally coordinated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton,” writes the paper. “It emerged yesterday that he had a phone conversation with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The main topic of the discussion was the Karabakh issue and prospects for the conflict’s resolution … Time will tell to what extent the U.S. will succeed in achieving progress towards the conflict’s resolution. But the fact is that both the U.S. and Russia and France try to push this process forward from time to time.”
Lragir.am says Armenia should pursue an “active energy policy in the region.” In this context, the publication points to this week’s visit to Yerevan by the European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn. Citing an official press release, it says Pashinian and Hahn agreed on the need for “new initiatives” in a number of areas, including energy. “On the same day Iran’s deputy energy minister arrived in Armenia and discussed with his Armenian counterpart ways of expanding the gas-for-electricity program and the ongoing construction of the third power transmission line connecting Armenia and Iran,” it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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