“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says that although there is no lack of calls in Armenia for a peaceful end to the Erebuni hostage crisis, few people can clearly explain why it occurred in the first place. The paper comes up with its own explanations, attributing the armed attack on the Erebuni police station to the socioeconomic situation in Armenia and the country’s political system that makes government change through elections practically impossible. It says the attack was also made possible by renewed talk of Armenian withdrawal from districts around Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Changes in Armenia are indeed long overdue,” writes “Aravot.” But those changes cannot be achieved by violent means, editorializes the paper. It says that the armed men that seized the Erebuni police building are only helping to cement the status quo in the country. “They need to provoke severe violence in the streets because otherwise the existence of their group will simply be forgotten, even if its members continue to give interviews” it says. “Can the authorities prevent such clashes? Yes, they can. But do they want to? We very much doubt it.”
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, tells “Haykakan Zhamanak” that he and members of his office have met with many protesters detained in Yerevan this week to look into reports that they were ill-treated in police custody. “We are concerned with the health of both policemen and ordinary citizens as well as an evaluation of the arrests made by the police,” says Tatoyan.
“Zhoghovurd” reports that the Armenian government has granted a value-added tax reprieve to a company that plans to import from Turkey fibro-optic pipes worth around $1.7 million. “One could have paid no attention to this decision had government members and other members of the Republican and Dashnaktsutyun parties not spoken out day and night against buying Turkish goods,” comments the paper. “As it turns out, they say one thing in public but do something different in reality.”
(Tigran Avetisian)