(Saturday, July 11)
Commenting on the Basic Principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement outlined in the Friday joint statement by the United States, Russian and French presidents, in particular the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control and the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence, “Hayk” writes: “The saddest thing is that nobody cares to ask Nagorno-Karabakh’s opinion on this. Furthermore, the actions of Armenia’s authorities in recent years have led to a situation where no one reckons even with the opinion of official Yerevan.”
The paper adds: “[Former president Robert] Kocharian and his surroundings had accused the republic’s founding president [Levon Ter-Petrosian] of sticking to a defeatist policy. And now the logical question is – and what is the ‘winning’ policy then? If these are the ideas of Kocharian and [his successor] Serzh Sarkisian about what a ‘winning’ policy is, then our country faces a very serious problem.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” writes in connection with the same statement: “The statement issued by the presidents of the United States, Russia and France urging the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the remaining differences and finalize a settlement agreement will have its significant influence on the meeting of the two in Moscow.”
The paper speculates that the joint statement by the leaders of the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group was made in order to provide a formal nature to the negotiating process.
“With this official document the presidents of the United States, Russia and France sent a message to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to speed up the negotiating process. The general impression is that the document mentioned by the presidents in fact has a binding nature and an attempt is being made to foist a solution on the parties based on the points of this document,” “Haykakan Zhamanak” concludes.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun”, meanwhile, ridicules the statement by the finance minister who tried to prove that the situation of people in Armenia has not worsened, since “there is no shortage of cars parked outside cafes in the evening.”
“It is the same as visiting a country and forming an opinion about it only by looking at those visiting night clubs or judging about the intellectual level of a whole people based only on impressions after a visit to one school for mentally retarded pupils,” the paper writes.
“Aravot” editorializes on the financial losses incurred by Armenia as a result of verdicts passed against its government by the European Court.
“In 2003-2004, police detained opposition demonstrators and ‘independent’ courts rubberstamped decisions on placing them in custody. And now we, the taxpayers, have to pay for those illegal actions of the authorities,” writes the paper. “But these are still small expenses and in the years to come we will have to pay ten times as much for the current actions of police, investigators and judges executing political orders. If at least some of the March 1, 2008 [post-election unrest] cases reach the European Court, the next time the justice minister will ask no less than 500,000 million euros from the government… But our courts may rest assured that this will not impact their incomes. The same, however, cannot be said about our budget.”
Commenting on the Basic Principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement outlined in the Friday joint statement by the United States, Russian and French presidents, in particular the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control and the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence, “Hayk” writes: “The saddest thing is that nobody cares to ask Nagorno-Karabakh’s opinion on this. Furthermore, the actions of Armenia’s authorities in recent years have led to a situation where no one reckons even with the opinion of official Yerevan.”
The paper adds: “[Former president Robert] Kocharian and his surroundings had accused the republic’s founding president [Levon Ter-Petrosian] of sticking to a defeatist policy. And now the logical question is – and what is the ‘winning’ policy then? If these are the ideas of Kocharian and [his successor] Serzh Sarkisian about what a ‘winning’ policy is, then our country faces a very serious problem.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” writes in connection with the same statement: “The statement issued by the presidents of the United States, Russia and France urging the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the remaining differences and finalize a settlement agreement will have its significant influence on the meeting of the two in Moscow.”
The paper speculates that the joint statement by the leaders of the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group was made in order to provide a formal nature to the negotiating process.
“With this official document the presidents of the United States, Russia and France sent a message to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to speed up the negotiating process. The general impression is that the document mentioned by the presidents in fact has a binding nature and an attempt is being made to foist a solution on the parties based on the points of this document,” “Haykakan Zhamanak” concludes.
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun”, meanwhile, ridicules the statement by the finance minister who tried to prove that the situation of people in Armenia has not worsened, since “there is no shortage of cars parked outside cafes in the evening.”
“It is the same as visiting a country and forming an opinion about it only by looking at those visiting night clubs or judging about the intellectual level of a whole people based only on impressions after a visit to one school for mentally retarded pupils,” the paper writes.
“Aravot” editorializes on the financial losses incurred by Armenia as a result of verdicts passed against its government by the European Court.
“In 2003-2004, police detained opposition demonstrators and ‘independent’ courts rubberstamped decisions on placing them in custody. And now we, the taxpayers, have to pay for those illegal actions of the authorities,” writes the paper. “But these are still small expenses and in the years to come we will have to pay ten times as much for the current actions of police, investigators and judges executing political orders. If at least some of the March 1, 2008 [post-election unrest] cases reach the European Court, the next time the justice minister will ask no less than 500,000 million euros from the government… But our courts may rest assured that this will not impact their incomes. The same, however, cannot be said about our budget.”