“Zhoghovurd” says that many Armenian town and village mayors who were connected to the former ruling regime and helped it rig elections should now brace themselves for serious trouble. The paper points to a speech which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian delivered on Monday at a conference on local self-rule held in Yerevan. Pashinian warned local government chiefs that they can no longer abuse their position to enrich themselves. The paper says Pashinian should have also released official statistics on corruption cases brought against such officials in the last several months.
“Zhamanak” reports on former Justice Minister Arpine Hovannisian’s decision to suspend her membership in the former ruling Republican Party (HHK) for the purpose of starting a law practice and setting up a non-governmental organization. The paper speculates that Hovannisian will use her Council of Europe connections to get the Strasbourg-based organization to scrutinize the new Armenian government’s human rights record. It says that she will meet with members of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) when they visit Yerevan in March.
“Aravot” says there have traditionally been several types of opposition forces in Armenia since the early 1990s. The paper says most common type of opposition activity in the country has been about “rejecting and denying everything.” It says that HHK figures such as Armen Ashotian now meet with a hostile public reaction when they voice the kind of criticism of the government which Pashinian voiced when he was an opposition leader.
“The reason for that is clear,” editorializes the paper. “Pashinian had never been in government before the [2018] revolution, and the society is sick and tired, to put it mildly, of all former governments. There are no such attitudes yet towards the current authorities and statements by the unpopular Ashotian … only exasperate the majority of the public. There is only solution [for the current opposition.] Namely, to stop attacking everyone and everything just like the former opposition did. The criticism must be more targeted.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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