“Aravot” praises a group of young activists for marking on Tuesday the 13th anniversary of the death of Poghos Poghosian, an ethnic Armenian from Georgia who was assaulted by then President Robert Kocharian’s bodyguards at a café in Yerevan. The activists marked the anniversary with a big banner saying “Hello Rob,” the phrase with which Poghosian reportedly greeted Kocharian before being beaten to death. They briefly placed the banner on a high fence surrounding the Armenian parliament compound. The parliament’s security service was quick to remove it, manhandling a female journalist in the process.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reveals what it describes as more details of a weekend meeting of the governing board of President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK). Citing unnamed HHK sources, the paper says that Sarkisian criticized the party’s parliamentary leader, Vahram Baghdasarian, for failing to prevent absenteeism among Republican lawmakers during the spring session of the National Assembly. “Still, Sarkisian’s main message was about the constitutional referendum,” it says, adding that the president made clear that the vote will take place.
“168 Zham” reports that the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the Armenian National Congress (HAK), the Zharangutyun party and possibly the Armenian Revolutionary Federation will hold their joint rally on October 17. The paper says Zharangutyun has tried unsuccessfully to schedule the rally for October 10, the day when a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union will decide whether to sign an accession treaty with Armenia. It claims that the BHK and the HAK feared that the timing sought by Zharangutyun would be “misunderstood in Moscow.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” quotes the leader of the Armenian Communist Party (HKK), Tachat Sargsian, as saying that the HKK hopes to make a much stronger showing in the next parliamentary elections due in 2017. “We surrendered power [in 1990] and must get it back by civilized means, by means of elections,” he says.
(Armen Koloyan)