“Zhoghovurd” comments on the fact that President Armen Sarkissian spoke a lot about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement during his joint press conference with visiting Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili in Yerevan on March 13. “As is known, the previous day the president did not attend the joint meeting of the Security Councils of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Stepanakert. The reason was that the prime minister’s administration sent the invitation rather late – on the eve of the meeting. The explanation provided by the presidential administration also referred to that fact, indirectly showing that [the president] took offense at it. And now Sarkissian, who has no great powers in the foreign-policy domain, speaks about the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and, to be frank, with quite correct accentuation. Thus, Sarkissian is trying to show that he is in the know and, if need be, can express a view on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue,” the paper concludes.
“Zhamanak” writes that Armenia’s ex-prime minister Karen Karapetian is now on the seven-member Board of Directors of Russia’s Zarubezhneft state-controlled oil company. “What is remarkable here is that for quite a long time the Armenian media have been reporting that Karapetian intends to engage in politics in Armenia, set up a political party and rally different former governmental circles around this party. And Karapetian himself has not officially responded to such media allegations or denied that he has such intentions. It turns out that in Armenia a person connected with a foreign state’s corporations can have some political programs. Here it does not matter what country, what corporation and what figure are concerned. But this circumstance becomes important considering the nature of Armenian-Russian relations over the past two decades, their contents and groups of interests involved in these relations as well as their ties to Armenia’s former government system, political interests and others. As a result, we get a picture that may concern even the national security and state dignity of Armenia.”
Lragir.am writes: “The newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Armenia met with the country’s environment minister. It is interesting that this minister is among the first officials that the ambassador meets and discusses joint work with. Earlier this week, the Lydian International company issued a statement about a possible international arbitration of its disputes with the Armenian government, at the same time saying that it is ready to discuss the current situation with the government. The situation, as is known, concerns the operation of the Amulsar gold deposit. After last year’s velvet revolution some local residents and environmental activists began to blockade road access to the mining site, halting its construction. This situation now lasts for months and the U.S. has repeatedly stated its concern about it. There is no doubt that the meeting of the new ambassador with the environment minister was also prompted by this very circumstance.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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