Press Review

“Zhamanak” says the largely indifferent public reaction to the announcement of the Armenian government’s plans to join the Russian-led customs union demonstrates that the Armenian society “does not have sufficient resilience on issues that are fateful and decisive for the country.” The paper argues that only a handful of non-governmental organizations supposedly promoting European integration have spoken out against those plans.

“Our political scene is simply useless,” “Azg” writes on the subject. The paper says that none of the country’s main political forces has articulated a clear and substantiated position on whether Armenia should opt for the customs union or the Association Agreement with the European Union. “This did not happen before September 3,” it says.

“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” reports that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) unveiled on Friday a program designed to halt the continuing out-migration of people from Armenia. “There are nice things written in the program,” the paper comments tartly. “For example, it says that we should separate business from politics, create new jobs and a system of fair worker compensation, enhance the level of the country’s security, eliminate impunity and so on. It’s a 10-point sexy program. It has only two shortcomings. First, there is not a single word in the program critical of Armenia’s current authorities, giving the impression that the authorities have nothing to do with this situation. The second minor shortcoming is that … the authorities would be primarily responsible for its implementation.” The authorities will only laugh at what Dashnaktsutyun is proposing, concludes “Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” notes that high-ranking Russian government officials were conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s consecration of a newly built Armenian cathedral in Moscow. The ceremony was led by the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II, and attended by the presidents of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. “Even Moscow’s newly elected mayor did not show up,” writes the paper. “It had been speculated that even Russia’s president will take in part in the ceremony. There can be only one conclusion. The Russian authorities did not miss the opportunity to neglect and humiliate the Armenian authorities.”

(Tigran Avetisian)