“Zhamanak” reports that parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan has sent a letter to Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian urging him to publicly respond to allegations that he illegally combines his political activities with business. The paper notes that the letter was made public late on Thursday right after a meeting of the governing board of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. It says this means that the “yellow card” to Tsarukian was “at least approved” by Pashinian. The authorities, it says, are serious about their threats to strip Tsarukian of his parliament seat.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says that the current political agenda of the Armenian government’s opponents is “false.” In particular, the pro-government paper dismisses BHK assurances that Tsarukian is not personally engaged in business. “Equally false is the discourse about the criminal case against [former President] Robert Kocharian being fabricated,” it says. “Looking people in the eyes, they want to make them believe that firearms were use against citizens in the center of Yerevan for several hours [in March 2008] without the then head of state’s knowledge and orders.” The paper also dismisses allegations by senior representatives of the former ruling Republican Party that the current authorities’ are undermining Armenia’s national security with their foreign policy.
“Aravot” dismisses as “artificial” the outcry sparked in Armenia by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s behavior at a Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) meeting in Yerevan which many felt was disrespectful towards Pashinian and his Russian language skills. “In my view, the [Armenian] prime minister’s knowledge of Russian, English and, according to specialists, French is quite satisfactory,” writes the newspaper editor, Aram Abrahamian. “It is natural to speak in the official language of that organization at EEU events. As for Medvedev, if he was untactful that is his problem. It was meaningless to wrangle over that [on social media.]”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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