“Zhamanak” reports that the current and former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh have “redirected” their calls for former President Robert Kocharian’s release from Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian to a court in Yerevan. In their letter to Davtian, they said Kocharian should be able to attend the May 9 celebrations of Karabakh’s main public holiday. The paper calls that argument an “emotional ploy,” saying that the Karabakh leaders continued to seek Kocharian’s release even after the celebrations. They are simply showing “political support for their friend or partner,” it says.
“Aravot” says the appeal to Davtian was “wrong from both the legal and political standpoints.” “By law, only the court can make such a decision, and yesterday the leaders of Artsakh seemingly corrected that mistake by presenting a guarantee to the court,” writes the paper. “As far as politics is concerned, Armenian public opinion is presently very hostile to Kocharian and our citizens have reason to have such sentiment.” The paper is also critical of what it sees as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s decision to “threaten Karabakh’s leadership with a revolution.” “We all should be interested in stability in the Republic of Artsakh,” it says.
“Zhoghovurd” reports that top European Union officials and the foreign ministers of ex-Soviet states involved in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program failed to adopt a joint statement after meeting in Brussels earlier this week. “Baku refused to sign the declaration because it made no mention of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” explains the paper. “This principle was mentioned in [Eastern Partnership] documents adopted previously. But this time European leader rejected Baku’s demands and worded the document the way they had planned to.” The paper claims that the EU did not reckon with Armenia’s position on the issue until now because the former Armenian authorities “had no legitimacy” and were regarded as corrupt. “It was easy for international organizations to exert pressure on them,” it says. “The situation has changed since the velvet revolution.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Facebook Forum