1in.am pounces on a remark by former President Robert Kocharian’s lawyer Samvel Khudoyan that “liberated lands” around Nagorno-Karabakh are not an integral part of the unrecognized Artsakh Republic and that Kocharian therefore cannot be faulted for bringing troops to Yerevan from those areas in February-March 2008. The publication highly critical of Kocharian says that the lawyer must have coordinated with the ex-president before making such a “statement endangering national security.” “Such statements can periodically be heard from Baku which questions Artsakh’s borders,” it says.
Lragir.am reports that campaigning has officially began for upcoming local elections in Karabakh. “The candidates for the post of Stepanakert mayor are already known,” writes the publication. “The election campaign is drastically different from all previous campaigns with the absence of the government factor. People in Stepanakert, who are accustomed to one or another influential government figure being behind a candidate, had been at pains to find out whom Bako Sahakian and others support. But it then emerged that a revolution of sorts occurred in Artsakh. The authorities there were not toppled. They were simply forced to give up their political monopoly … These are ideal conditions for elections which will be held in the absence of a political monopoly for the first time in many years.”
“Aravot” comments on the worsening situation with garbage collection in Yerevan. The paper claims that the problem results from last year’s “change of the [government] systems.” “The old system was based on an informal circulation of cash and possible gaps [in its functioning] were closed through shadowy deals,” editorializes the paper. “Now everything must be open and transparent, and this will cause problems for some time.” It goes on to urge the Yerevan municipality to embark on a “comprehensive program of garbage collection” that will address all aspects of waste management in the Armenian capital.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Facebook Forum