Turkey will risk reversing its unprecedented rapprochement with Armenia if it persists in linking the process with a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict desired by Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said on Sunday.
“Capital” suggests that the unprecedented tour of the world’s major Armenian communities undertaken by President Serzh Sarkisian raises the question of whether the Diaspora is using the language of blackmail in talking to Armenia. The paper makes this conclusion based on the response from protesting Armenians for whom this “supranational tour is not a thing.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” views the expected joint staging by the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (AFF) of a march towards the presidential palace next Friday to urge the authorities not to sign the draft Armenia-Turkey protocols “in the context” of the demand for the resignation of the foreign minister rather than the president.
“Zhamanak” construes Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian’s statement made during Thursday consultations with the military’s top brass that the army gives him confidence in the ongoing talks with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh as his admitting that he lacks the support of citizenry despite the official landslide victory of his party in the 2007 parliamentary elections and his own victory in the 2008 presidential election.
“Lragir.am” talks to senior opposition member David Shahnazarian, who as presidential ambassador-at-large for special assignments in 1992-94 was privy to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and Armenia-Turkey affairs.
Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s former longtime foreign minister, has defended the most recent international plan to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and warned that its blanket rejection could make the mediators reconsider their apparent acceptance of continued Armenian control over the disputed territory.
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Executive Council of Armenia representative Armen Rustamian tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that the need for a comprehensive party action platform emerged “naturally” after the party quit the governing coalition about three months ago and declared itself to be opposition.
“Hraparak” writes that after another meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow “some took a sigh of relief as no document was signed and no agreement was reached.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reads the call for opposition consolidation made by Zharangutyun (Heritage) party leader Raffi Hovannisian as an attempt to secure his own future as a single presidential candidate in the next election.