Reporting on Thursday’s deadly Azerbaijani shelling of Armenian border villages, “Zhamanak” suggests that Baku is trying to put pressure on the Armenian side ahead of a meeting in New York between the foreign ministers of the two states. The paper alleges that Russia is interested in such pressure because it is trying to take the center stage in the Karabakh peace process.
“Hraparak” says that angry statements by Armenia’s defense and foreign ministries made in response to the deaths of three Armenian civilians alone will have no impact on Baku. The paper is also skeptical about a draft U.S. congressional resolution calling on the conflicting sides to withdraw their snipers from the frontlines and stressing the need for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to deploy more observers in the conflict zone.
In an interview with “Hayots Ashkhar,” political analyst Sergey Minasian disagrees with those who think that Armenia should leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) because the Russian-led military alliance does not openly side with the Armenian side in the Karabakh dispute. Minasian argues that membership in the CSTO is an element of Armenia’s defense alliance with Russia which entitles it to receiving Russian weapons at discounted prices or even for free. “The CSTO is not complete as an organization,” he says. “But it is one of the factors which Armenia can use for sustaining the military-political balance in the region. Why shouldn’t we use what we have?”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” claims that verbal attacks on U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills launched by a leading member of the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), Vahram Baghdasarian, have proved very embarrassing for the Armenian government. “Vahram Baghdasarian’s statement has angered Serzh Sarkisian,” the paper says.
(Tigran Avetisian)