“Zhamanak” describes as unprecedented the Iranian president’s and the Singapore prime minister’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) summit in Yerevan. The paper says the Armenian government should follow up on that by submitting concrete proposals to Russia and the other EEU member states.
Lragir.am reports that the Kremlin refuted on Monday Armenian media speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin will avoid a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on the sidelines of the EEU summit. “The Kremlin insisted that a Putin-Pashinian meeting will take place,” writes the publication. “Also not confirmed are reports that the Russian president will announce an increase in the price of Russian gas price for Armenia during his visit.” It claims that “some Armenian circles prefer to side with Moscow” in actual or potential Russian-Armenian disagreements.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” dismisses opposition criticism of the arrest of two supporters of Robert Kocharian arrested on charges of harassing the judge presiding over the former Armenian president’s trial. The pro-government paper also rejects claims that the weekend arrest of a Justice Ministry official close to Hrayr Tovmasian, the Constitutional Court chairman, was politically motivated and constituted government pressure on Tovmasian.
“Hraparak” wonders “how a society that gave the Republican Party 700,000 votes in 2017 could wake up and wholeheartedly hate it” a year later. “What invisible hand forced people to sell their votes for 5,000-10,000 drams to a political force towards which there was so much hidden hatred?” asks the paper. “The former governments and parliaments acted with their active support. They tolerated all negative practices in our country. Of course some will counter that we did not elect [former governments] and vote irregularities and bribes played a role in the past. But we must not deceive ourselves. A large part of our society willingly elected, willingly accepted vote bribes and willingly contributed to the former regime’s reproduction, while the other part tolerated those who falsified elections, took voter bribes and served the former regime.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
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