“Zhamanak” describes the remark about “black and white forces” made by Hayk Marutian, a mayoral candidate nominated by a group loyal to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, as very “poor” and “politically inefficient.” But the paper adds: “The problem is that the candidate, willy-nilly, has registered a reality that is tending to be formed in Armenia – and that reality emerged with ex-president Robert Kocharian’s statement about his return to politics. By this position Kocharian, in fact, created prerequisites for the ‘black and white’ division.”
The editor of “Aravot” writes: “Robert Kocharian has announced his intention to take part in preterm parliamentary elections and actor Hayk Marutian made some careless statements. These events are in ‘different weight categories’ for Armenians, but social media have discussed both almost equally and with the same negative reaction. I have already written about Kocharian, trying to analyze his chances in early elections and stay away from emotional qualifications… The genre of analysis requires reason and coherent thoughts. Of course, these thoughts may be correct or incorrect.”
“Zhoghovurd” reports on new circumstances in the criminal case concerning the 2008 post-election events. In particular, the Special Investigation Service (SIS) says that a criminal probe has been launched into the predawn action by police to dismantle a protest camp early on March 1, 2008, which became a prelude to the violence later that day that led to 10 deaths. “The SIS has not yet charged any senior police official of those days, including then police chief Hayk Harutiunian, but the course of events prompts that we will soon hear about new persons charged in this case,” the paper writes.
(Tigran Avetisian)