Armenian newspapers react to Thursday’s scandalous dismissal of Ukraine’s first post-revolution government by President Viktor Yushchenko with headlines like “Revolution Gobbles Its Offspring,” “Love Story Is Over” and “Revolutionaries Split.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” tries to imagine “an Armenian variant of the Ukrainian scenario.” “Imagine Local Government Minister Hovik Abrahamian calling a news conference and announcing his resignation on the grounds that he can not work corrupt with officials like Security Council Secretary Serzh Sarkisian and presidential aide Armen Gevorgian. The latter, denying the accusations made by Hovik Abrahamian, step down, saying that their good reputation is more important for them than anything else and that they can not remain in the office while those accusations are being investigated because the public would regard that as pressure on the inquiry.”
Turning to Armenian reality, “Haykakan Zhamanak” continues: “We are not threatened by such upheavals because everybody here is corrupt to such an extent that nobody can accuse anyone else of corruption.”
The head of the Council of Europe office in Yerevan, Bojana Urumova, tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that the unfolding local elections across Armenia will again put to a test the authorities’ commitment to democracy. “If there are vote irregularities, voters will have a weighty reason not to participate in the [November constitutional] referendum,” she says.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” believes that the Armenian authorities “used” Albert Bazeyan and Vagharshak Harutiunian to cause a split within the opposition Hanrapetutyun party. “The authorities needed to split the last organized and revolution-minded force ahead of the constitutional referendum,” writes the weekly paper.
“The wave of color revolutions in the post-Soviet space is gradually waning,” writes “Iravunk.” The paper says this is good news for the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments that are bracing for trouble in the upcoming national votes.
“With the adoption of a constitution based European standards, our state and society get a big advantage in regional competition,” editorializes “Yerkir.” “We will thereby have a qualitatively new country with qualitatively new development prospects, with a new capacity to ensure our security and attain our national goals.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” believes that the construction of two new avenues in central Yerevan did not warrant the destruction of old houses and eviction of their residents. “In this case, the state simply decided to sell the land to private individuals and pledged to cleanse the territory of redundant things. Namely, the people.”
“Azg” reports that the black market of pre-paid mobile phone cards issued by ArmenTel continues to thrive despite claims to the contrary made by the Greek-owned company. “It’s been three or four months since mobile connection collapsed and many are using mobile phones as notebooks or watches,” says the paper.
(Hrach Melkumian)
“Haykakan Zhamanak” tries to imagine “an Armenian variant of the Ukrainian scenario.” “Imagine Local Government Minister Hovik Abrahamian calling a news conference and announcing his resignation on the grounds that he can not work corrupt with officials like Security Council Secretary Serzh Sarkisian and presidential aide Armen Gevorgian. The latter, denying the accusations made by Hovik Abrahamian, step down, saying that their good reputation is more important for them than anything else and that they can not remain in the office while those accusations are being investigated because the public would regard that as pressure on the inquiry.”
Turning to Armenian reality, “Haykakan Zhamanak” continues: “We are not threatened by such upheavals because everybody here is corrupt to such an extent that nobody can accuse anyone else of corruption.”
The head of the Council of Europe office in Yerevan, Bojana Urumova, tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that the unfolding local elections across Armenia will again put to a test the authorities’ commitment to democracy. “If there are vote irregularities, voters will have a weighty reason not to participate in the [November constitutional] referendum,” she says.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” believes that the Armenian authorities “used” Albert Bazeyan and Vagharshak Harutiunian to cause a split within the opposition Hanrapetutyun party. “The authorities needed to split the last organized and revolution-minded force ahead of the constitutional referendum,” writes the weekly paper.
“The wave of color revolutions in the post-Soviet space is gradually waning,” writes “Iravunk.” The paper says this is good news for the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments that are bracing for trouble in the upcoming national votes.
“With the adoption of a constitution based European standards, our state and society get a big advantage in regional competition,” editorializes “Yerkir.” “We will thereby have a qualitatively new country with qualitatively new development prospects, with a new capacity to ensure our security and attain our national goals.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” believes that the construction of two new avenues in central Yerevan did not warrant the destruction of old houses and eviction of their residents. “In this case, the state simply decided to sell the land to private individuals and pledged to cleanse the territory of redundant things. Namely, the people.”
“Azg” reports that the black market of pre-paid mobile phone cards issued by ArmenTel continues to thrive despite claims to the contrary made by the Greek-owned company. “It’s been three or four months since mobile connection collapsed and many are using mobile phones as notebooks or watches,” says the paper.
(Hrach Melkumian)