Press: Why did Karen Karapetyan return to Armenia?

VERELQ presents the most notable publications of the Armenian press.

“Right” the newspaper writes. “Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Karen Karapetyan was sent to Armenia. According to the information we have, his return is not accidental, the Russian authorities hope that he will resolve the disputes with the Armenian authorities regarding the price of gas. By the way, according to the rumors, besides this, it also has other goals. He does not come to terms with the idea that he is leaving Armenia for the second time leaving his position half-finished, while he announced that it would not be like that. Therefore, he is trying not to be left out of the Armenian political processes, with whom he is in a team, it is not yet known.”

“time” the newspaper writes. “There is serious dissatisfaction among the employees of the tax service of Armenia, head of the SRC From Davit Ananyan: 2018 was the only year when tax service employees were not paid bonuses. We are talking about rank-and-file and mid-level employees of the service. Before the New Year, Ananyan cut about 130 people from the system, thereby creating an atmosphere of fear among employees, and distributed the entire bonus fund between himself and his relatives. It is natural that ordinary employees cannot rebel against their boss, but it is a fact that there is a deep hatred towards him in the institution he leads.”

“time” the newspaper writes. “Guardian of the Ararat cement factory Arrival Sargsyanhas become a real threat and headache for the factory employees and the people of Ararat. Enjoying the factory owner’s Gagik Tsarukyan confidence – he became the “problem solver” at the factory. Anyone who does not obey his whims or whom he “doesn’t like” is dismissed from work, threatened with reprisals if they complain. The cement factory is the only place of work in Ararat, where those who are fired without reason end up unemployed on the street. Galust Sargsyan’s wife recently managed to convince Tsarukyan to close the kindergarten for the children of the factory workers, whose director she was fired from.

“People” the newspaper writes: “Mothers of soldiers who died in peaceful conditions protested again, claiming that the law enforcement system is not doing anything to reveal the crimes. Moreover, they declare that the former Prosecutor General of RA has a major role in covering up these cases Gevorg Kostanyan. In the conversation with “Zhoghovurd” daily, Kostanyan claimed that the cases suspended during his tenure were reopened, and an officer was even convicted in one of them. At the same time, Kostanyan made a remarkable comment about the criticisms directed at him. “You should think about why the arrows are pointing at me, because I don’t understand, I don’t want to go with the assumption that some people want to use this circumstance to discredit me. I haven’t been the Attorney General for three years, so why haven’t the cases been solved? And one more thing: I was appointed a military prosecutor in 2011, and these cases are 1, 5, 10 years before my appointment. I didn’t have an unsolved case, you make the rest of the conclusions.”

“Realist” the newspaper writes. “Along with the structural discussions of the government Nikol Pashinyan The issue of changing the Prosecutor General is also included in the upcoming plans. We were informed about this by a government source. The ground is also being prepared for this, news about the bad work of the prosecutor’s office, bribery from within the government itself is regularly circulated. After the change of power, Nikol Pashinyan could not manage this change immediately, because he did not have the appropriate votes in the parliament. Let’s remind that 3/5 of the votes of the deputies, that is, 79 votes, are needed for the election of the Prosecutor General. This means that having a majority in the parliament – 88 deputies – Pashinyan can Arthur Davtyan easily replaced by any of his teammates.”

“People” the newspaper writes: “Yesterday Prime Minister of RA Nikol Pashinyan President of the Republic Armen Sargsyan presented the recommendation on the pardon petitions. In general, let’s note that the topic of pardon is the most discussed recently, especially the life sentence Mher Enokyanwithin the framework of the case, because supporters are actively fighting for his release. And here, a proposal related to Mher Enokyan was also sent to the president. No government agency details the exact decision that was made. According to the press service of the president, the president signed the relevant decree without objections. In any case, it is not clear whether Nikol Pashinyan proposed to forgive or not to forgive Mher Enokyan. According to the circulating news, the offer to pardon Yenokyan was rejected. Let’s add that those decisions have already been sent to the Ministry of Justice, however the latter’s news service told the “Zhoghovurd” daily that they will make a statement in this regard only today and cannot reveal other details. At the same time, “Zhoghovurd” newspaper received reliable information that the prime minister has clearly instructed all relevant departments to carefully study all the cases, discuss them from many angles and then present them to the prime minister so that the public does not have any doubts or other questions in this regard. Nikol Pashinyan put that question very clearly.”

“Publication” the newspaper writes. “The Armenian broadcasting field is in the process of reorganization. For a long time, they were talking about selling the H3 TV station, but they answered us that they have no such intention, but it is possible for the “management” of the house. “Ararat” JSC, transformed into the 5th channel, is being seriously re-equipped. Some do not rule out that the TV company will be subjected to “sanctions” for its one-sided, biased “reporting” by the Armenian National Congress, whose president was the former editor of “Hayk” newspaper Tigran Hakobyan. TV 5, located in the “black” building of the RPA, will be moved to a new, renovated area – “Erebuni Plaza” after being re-equipped. Kocharyan the media “empire” associated with the name gathers under one roof. Until the end of the month, the “Armnews” TV station, which has been equipped with the latest technology and expanded its coverage area, will also start its activities, which is going to provide only news (only that function is written in the license) with the “logic” of CNN. In other words, every hour, with 24-hour broadcasting. To remind, these works are carried out by the “Quartet” of former MPs who broke away from the RPA: Samvel Farmanyan, Karen Bekaryan, Arman Saghatelyan, Mihran Hakobyan composition”.

“Fact” the newspaper writes. “As it is known, a respectable delegation of RPA representatives left for Germany the other day. It is noteworthy that this visit coincided with the Prime Minister Pashinyanwith a visit to Germany. According to our sources, this is not a coincidence. According to the source of the newspaper, the members of the RPA present the internal political situation of Armenia during their meetings in Germany. On the other hand, the visit is related to the upcoming reforms and modernization process in the party, in other words, rebranding. According to some reports, the Republicans want to apply the German experience of parties. The members of the RPA, taking advantage of the opportunity, also talked about the issues arising from the interests of RA during the meetings. In particular, there were discussions about the ratification of the RA-EU agreement in the Bundestag. according to our information, it will take place by September of this year. The next issue raised by RPA members is related to visa liberalization with Germany. According to our source, the German partners emphasized that it is still too early to talk about this problem, because the European Parliament elections are expected in the near future, and, as we know, migration issues are very acute in Europe, and it is quite risky to manipulate them during the pre-election period.

“time” the newspaper writes. The “Bright Armenia” faction of the National Assembly has come forward with a legislative initiative, proposing to amend the NA Rules of Procedure and add a provision according to which the ambassadors of the Republic of Armenia and/or the heads of diplomatic missions accredited to foreign countries and international organizations, after being nominated, meet with the members of the NA Foreign Relations Committee before being appointed. Such meetings may also take place after their appointment in the course of their work. This is an accepted order in many democracies of the world and is meant to ensure parliamentary control over diplomatic missions.”