“Zhamanak” reports that the Armenian government is planning to increase budgetary funding for the national police by 500 million drams (over $1 million) next year. The paper welcomes this intention, saying that the state must “financially motivate” the police. “This is certainly not the most decisive thing in the important task of reforming the [law-enforcement] system,” it says. “But it is one of the important things and starting points of the reform.”
“Hraparak” predicts that controversial decisions made by Armenian law-enforcement authorities in their high-profile investigations into current and former state officials will eventually be overturned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and cost Armenia millions of dollars in damages. “Every case that is investigated by the Special Investigative Service, the National Security Service and the Investigative Committee will come back in the form of a slap in our face after reaching Strasbourg,” claims the paper.
“Aravot” says that voicing baseless allegations against the incumbent authorities has been the norm for various Armenian opposition forces for the last 27 years. For instance, the paper says, political opponents of the current authorities deliberately mislead the public about a European convention on violence against women in an effort to discredit Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. It says that Pashinian himself attacked Armenia’s former government with similarly unfounded claims when he was in opposition. “Politics is like this all over the world,” writes the newspaper editor.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” defends Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian against strong domestic criticism of his interview with the BBC which touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, among other issues. The pro-government paper dismisses claims by former government officials and their supporters that the current Armenian leaders’ harsh criticism of their predecessors is now exploited abroad to the detriment of the official Armenian position on the conflict.
(Tatevik Lazarian)
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