“Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” reports on Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s interview with Russia’s Vesti TV channel in which he discussed, among other things, Turkish-Armenian relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Gul said Russia plays an extremely important role in the Karabakh peace process. He praised the November meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents hosted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev outside Moscow in November. “We believe that Russia has a pivotal role in this issue because it is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group,” he said.
Gul also described as “very important” Turkey’s proposal to create a “stability and cooperation platform” encompassing all regional states. “In this part of the world there are many so-called frozen conflicts,” he said. “It would be wrong to seek to keep them constantly frozen.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says the authorities in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have stopped short of explicitly denying a Turkish newspaper report that gave details of a Karabakh peace accord allegedly reached by Baku and Yerevan. “This whole process is a big bluff and carries extremely serious risks,” says the opposition paper. “Because if Serzh Sarkisian signs a peace agreement that is not accepted by Karabakh, that will very quickly lead to war. And if Armenia itself doesn’t sign the document, that will lead to international sanctions against our country.”
Lragir.am wonders if Gagik Tsarukian and his Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) are drifting away from former President Robert Kocharian. “If the assertions that Robert Kocharian became the godfather of the Prosperous Armenia project in order to solve the issue of staying in power after his resignation are correct, then the BHK leader is now absolutely right to say that Robert Kocharian could not have anything to do with his party’s congress,” says the online journal. “The thing is that by drawing businessman Gagik Tsarukian into a political process, Kocharian failed to pursue that project to the end.” Tsarukian would therefore be right to distance himself from Kocharian now, it concludes
Artsvik Minasian, a member of the parliamentary commission investigating the post-election violence in Yerevan, assures “Yerkir” that the commission has managed to “considerably weaken” political tension in the country. “In retrospect, compare the situations in July-September 2008 and now,” he says. “It’s obvious that tension has eased. The commission has managed to significantly contribute to that.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)
Gul also described as “very important” Turkey’s proposal to create a “stability and cooperation platform” encompassing all regional states. “In this part of the world there are many so-called frozen conflicts,” he said. “It would be wrong to seek to keep them constantly frozen.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says the authorities in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have stopped short of explicitly denying a Turkish newspaper report that gave details of a Karabakh peace accord allegedly reached by Baku and Yerevan. “This whole process is a big bluff and carries extremely serious risks,” says the opposition paper. “Because if Serzh Sarkisian signs a peace agreement that is not accepted by Karabakh, that will very quickly lead to war. And if Armenia itself doesn’t sign the document, that will lead to international sanctions against our country.”
Lragir.am wonders if Gagik Tsarukian and his Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) are drifting away from former President Robert Kocharian. “If the assertions that Robert Kocharian became the godfather of the Prosperous Armenia project in order to solve the issue of staying in power after his resignation are correct, then the BHK leader is now absolutely right to say that Robert Kocharian could not have anything to do with his party’s congress,” says the online journal. “The thing is that by drawing businessman Gagik Tsarukian into a political process, Kocharian failed to pursue that project to the end.” Tsarukian would therefore be right to distance himself from Kocharian now, it concludes
Artsvik Minasian, a member of the parliamentary commission investigating the post-election violence in Yerevan, assures “Yerkir” that the commission has managed to “considerably weaken” political tension in the country. “In retrospect, compare the situations in July-September 2008 and now,” he says. “It’s obvious that tension has eased. The commission has managed to significantly contribute to that.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)