“Haykakan Zhamanak” also comments on a $18.5 million donation to the state reportedly made by former President Serzh Sarkisian’s controversial brother Aleksandr. The latter at the same denies fraud accusations brought against him. “This naturally raises the following question: if he doesn’t admit his guilt and maintains that he became rich by honest means why did he donate $18.5 million to the state? Does hope to save his fortune by sacrificing a part of it?”
For his part, Robert Kocharian’s son Sedrak is facing similar charges and strongly denying them. “Whether or not the law-enforcers will succeed in proving those accusations in court is a different question,” says “Haykakan Zhamanak.” The pro-government paper say that through “propaganda manipulations” Sedrak Kocharian and Aleksandr Sarkisian are trying to make Armenians believe that they became millionaire businessmen without benefiting from government corruption.
“Zhoghovurd” reports that the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group will not visit Stepanakert during their latest tour of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. A senior Karabakh official, Davit Babayan, is quoted as playing down this fact, saying that “such exceptions happen sometimes.” Babayan also argues that the main purpose of the co-chairs’ trip is to organize another meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The paper notes that an official press release on Pashinian’s meeting with the mediators held on Wednesday made no mention of the next Armenian-Azerbaijani summit.
“Zhamanak” comments on Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria’s visit to Armenia which begins on Thursday. “Armenia and Georgia are on different security vectors,” writes the paper. Nevertheless, it says that they have “common interests” and are in a position to jointly contribute to regional security. “These are vital interests as they involve issues conditioning the continued existence of the Armenian and Georgian states,” it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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