(Saturday, May 8)
“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” uses the 18th anniversary of the capture of the Karabakh town of Shushi by Armenian forces to attack those who claim that former President Levon Ter-Petrosian did not permit or know about the operation. The pro-opposition paper also ridicules a senior member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) for saying recently that the Armenians should have also occupied the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan immediately after the Shushi victory.
Interviewed by “Hayots Ashkhar,” Vahram Atanesian, a senior Karabakh parliamentarian, sees a contradiction between Azerbaijan’s continuing war rhetoric and claims that the international community supports Baku’s position on the Karabakh dispute. “The threat of war means that the international community is not inclined to satisfy Azerbaijan’s claims,” he says. “That is, the document put at the negotiating table does not satisfy Azerbaijan. In that case, Azerbaijan could resort to a military adventure, something which we counter by reinforcing our defense system, creating security mechanisms.”
In an interview with “Kapital,” pro-opposition commentator Hrant Ter-Abrahamian speaks out against a government proposal to allow the existence of schools where the language of instruction is not Armenian. “Russian schools are usually oriented towards Russian culture,” he says. “I’m not saying Russian culture is bad. But this is a matter of ideology and worldview … The problem is that Armenian would begin to be regarded as a merely colloquial language.”
Andranik Kocharian, one of the two opposition members of the now defunct Fact-Finding Group of Experts, tells “168 Zham” that the Armenian authorities are obstructing the criminal investigation into the March 2008 violence in Yerevan. Kocharian also says he and the other opposition member of the group, Seda Safarian, have uncovered “new facts” that shed more light on the circumstances of the unrest. He says they will publicize those facts later this month.
Vartan Harutiunian, a human rights activist close to the Armenian opposition, tells “Aravot” that the Armenian police have never shaken off their violent Soviet past in the past two decades. “Today that system serves not the state and the people but the current rulers,” he says. “In essence, it has been transformed into a blind truncheon of the rulers which is engaged in political persecutions, instead of carrying out its main function of maintaining public order and combating crime. Hence, the sense of impunity prevalent among the policemen.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)
“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” uses the 18th anniversary of the capture of the Karabakh town of Shushi by Armenian forces to attack those who claim that former President Levon Ter-Petrosian did not permit or know about the operation. The pro-opposition paper also ridicules a senior member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) for saying recently that the Armenians should have also occupied the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan immediately after the Shushi victory.
Interviewed by “Hayots Ashkhar,” Vahram Atanesian, a senior Karabakh parliamentarian, sees a contradiction between Azerbaijan’s continuing war rhetoric and claims that the international community supports Baku’s position on the Karabakh dispute. “The threat of war means that the international community is not inclined to satisfy Azerbaijan’s claims,” he says. “That is, the document put at the negotiating table does not satisfy Azerbaijan. In that case, Azerbaijan could resort to a military adventure, something which we counter by reinforcing our defense system, creating security mechanisms.”
In an interview with “Kapital,” pro-opposition commentator Hrant Ter-Abrahamian speaks out against a government proposal to allow the existence of schools where the language of instruction is not Armenian. “Russian schools are usually oriented towards Russian culture,” he says. “I’m not saying Russian culture is bad. But this is a matter of ideology and worldview … The problem is that Armenian would begin to be regarded as a merely colloquial language.”
Andranik Kocharian, one of the two opposition members of the now defunct Fact-Finding Group of Experts, tells “168 Zham” that the Armenian authorities are obstructing the criminal investigation into the March 2008 violence in Yerevan. Kocharian also says he and the other opposition member of the group, Seda Safarian, have uncovered “new facts” that shed more light on the circumstances of the unrest. He says they will publicize those facts later this month.
Vartan Harutiunian, a human rights activist close to the Armenian opposition, tells “Aravot” that the Armenian police have never shaken off their violent Soviet past in the past two decades. “Today that system serves not the state and the people but the current rulers,” he says. “In essence, it has been transformed into a blind truncheon of the rulers which is engaged in political persecutions, instead of carrying out its main function of maintaining public order and combating crime. Hence, the sense of impunity prevalent among the policemen.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)