“Haykakan Zhamanak” is worried about what it calls a “counteroffensive” planned by “counterrevolutionary” forces in Armenia. “The situation is quite serious and given the counterrevolutionaries’ ‘tool kit’ it will be very hard to avoid shocks,” writes the pro-government paper. It says that some of those forces pledged allegiance to Nikol Pashinian’s “velvet revolution” one year ago despite remaining hostile to it “deep down.” “Put simply, just like one year ago, Nikol Pashinian has no real allies on the political scene,” it says. “His sole ally is the majority of the people. That was not quite visible one year ago but is more evident now.”
“Zhamanak” reports that a representative of Belarus, Stanislav Zas, will take over as secretary general of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on January 1, 2020. “Many in Armenia are wondering whether this marks a victory or defeat for Armenia,” writes the paper. “On one hand, it was a victory because Yerevan did not allow Astana and Minsk to prematurely appoint Zas. On the other hand, a new representative of Armenia has not been appointed [after Yuri Khachaturov’s resignation in November 2018] either. In essence, Moscow has benefited from that because the vacant post was given to the CSTO’s Deputy Secretary General [Valery] Semerikov. It is very important for Armenia to hold its ground and stand by key questions raised by it.”
“The issue of CSTO secretary general can thus been deemed closed,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper claims that Armenia has emerged “somewhat victorious” from the dispute over who should succeed Khachaturov as CSTO secretary general. “The Armenian authorities have not bowed to pressure [from other CSTO member states] or lost ground,” it says. “Also, Russia’s position has been very important here. Being the most important CSTO country, Russia has maintained complete neutrality on this issue, contrary to some people’s sinister forecasts that it will use its influence and force Armenia to back down.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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