“Haykakan Zhamanak” scoffs at a senior former official over his claim that the deadly fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2016 was a result of Azerbaijan’s response to its diplomatic defeat in the negotiation process. “It turns out that during the presidency of Serzh Sarkisian the Armenian side scored a diplomatic victory, as a result of which there was a war that resulted in more than a hundred victims and a loss of 800 hectares of land by Armenians. It is a very odd idea of a diplomatic victory. In reality, the April [2016] became possible because of the diplomatic defeat of the Armenian side or rather a string of successive defeats,” the pro-government paper writes.
According to “168 Zham”, the recent meeting between U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy and former Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian shows that “no matter how hard the current authorities have tried to present the Sarkisian-led former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) as a marginalized political party”, Washington views it as “one of the entities playing a decisive role in [the country’s] political life.” “On the other hand, such meetings held by Sarkisian are rather a rule than an exception,” writes the paper critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his government. Citing its sources, “168 Zham” says that especially in the recent period ex-president Sarkisian has had intensive contacts with diplomatic representatives of different countries, including Russia, China and Europeans. “In general, in assessing Armenia’s domestic politics, its international partners, including the United States, see the lack of systems and mechanisms providing checks and balances for the current government that opposition parties should play. This perhaps was also one of the main reasons for the U.S. ambassador’s meeting with Sarkisian,” the paper adds.
“Past” suggests that the Armenian government may be planning to scrap the institution of the Constitutional Court altogether after “all their possible and impossible efforts to oust its chairman Hrayr Tovmasian have led to no desirable outcome.” The paper refers to some information at its disposal, claiming that a tentative political decision has been made in this regard and that this decision will “make it possible not only to get rid of Tovmasian, but also abolish the Constitutional Court as an institution.” “One of the options is to merge the powers of the Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court and establish a new High Court. A referendum may be held on this matter,” the paper writes.
(Tatevik Lazarian)
Facebook Forum