“Zhoghovurd” comments on the arrest of Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian’ brother Henrik, saying that the authorities are continuing to expand the circle of individuals deemed responsible for the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. The paper says the National Security Service (NSS) must have “serious grounds” to suspect that weapons found in Abrahamian’s Mkhchian village were used against opposition protesters. Abrahamian may therefore be charged soon, it says.
Lragir.am describes the weapons cache found by the NSS as “really impressive.” “Why did Hovik Abrahamian need so many weapons?” asks the online publication. “He and his extended family did not participate in the Karabakh war and are actually among those individuals who cashed in on that war.” It says that Abrahamian was a “key member of the criminal-oligarchic system” that ruled Armenia until recently. It also wonders if Abrahamian was “denounced” by someone or simply decided to cooperate with law-enforcement bodies investigating the March 2008 violence.
Interviewed by “Aravot,” Ararat Zurabian, a mayoral candidate of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) party, claims that he does not regard Hayk Marutian, a candidate of Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party as his main rival in the upcoming local elections in Yerevan. Zurabian says that Pashinian’s popularity will not translate into many votes for Marutian. “Nikol Pashinian cannot simultaneously be prime minister, National Assembly speaker, mayor, governor, diplomat, policeman or army general,” he says. “These are functions that have to be performed by certain individuals with relevant knowledge.”
(Tigran Avetisian)