“Zhoghovurd” believes that President Serzh Sarkisian will remain “at the helm of power” regardless of whether or not he becomes prime minister after serving out his final presidential term in April 2018. The paper expects the Armenian authorities to “push this notion at any cost” in the months ahead in a bid to make Armenians come to terms with the extension of his decade-long rule. “Generally speaking, this prospect has been evident right from the beginning, when Serzh Sarkisian initiated the process of constitutional changes,” it says. “He took that step in order to prolong his rule.”
“Zhamanak” says that Gagik Tsarukian and his supposedly opposition alliance are now ready to enter into a governing coalition with Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The paper suggests that a power-sharing deal between them could be reached right after Armenia switches to a parliamentary system of government in April 2018. “Nobody can now say for certain what the Tsarukian Bloc stands for now,” it says. “It is formally not part of the government and therefore cannot be regarded as a governing force in the political sense. But you cannot call the bloc an opposition in any way. Its members take every opportunity to praise the authorities and marvel in their foreign economic and security policies.”
“Aravot” claims that Russia is stepping up pressure on Armenia ahead of the planned signing in November of a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the European Union. “It is a much more modest document than the Association Agreement,” comments the paper. “Nevertheless, the prospect of its signing does not sit well with Russia. The Kremlin did not like our participation in [recent] U.S.-Georgian military exercises as well as discussions on renaming streets in Yerevan … This is certainly a problem. But it’s a problem that requires a calm and composed approach, negotiations, flexibility, rather than lamentations or disappointed excla mations.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that Anahit Bakhshian, a member of Yerevan’s municipal council representing the opposition Yelk alliance, has demanded Education Minister Levon Mkrtchian’s resignation. Bakhshian holds Mkrtchian responsible for a medal for academic excellence which President Serzh Sarkisian gave recently to the teenage son of a town mayor accused over running over and killing a man with his father’s car.
(Tigran Avetisian)