By Vestnik Kavkaza
The press is focused on the consequences of the Gyumri tragedy, juridical issues of the investigation into the murder, and politicization of the incident in the context of Russian-Armenian relations. The deepening economic crisis in the country is also discussed by the Armenian media.
Speaking about handing the defendant, who is accused of the murders of the Avetisyan family, over to the Armenian side, 168 Zham Newspaper sums up: “The Russians don’t want to give their bastard to us. Does anyone demand it from Russia, except for the Armenian community? The Armenian authorities still haven’t made any demand on giving Permyakov to Armenia. If the authorities don’t interfere in an incident of the shooting of their own citizens, it means the authorities don’t exist at all,” the periodical reports.
Commenting on the statement by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, that the tragedy in Gyumri shouldn’t be politicized, Chorrord Ishkhanutyun writes: “There were no anti-Russian slogans during massive protests in Gyumri. The question wasn’t politicized. The demonstrators were demanding that the criminal be handed over to the Armenian authorities. Nobody spoke about withdrawal of the Russian military base from Armenia. However, many Armenian officials, social activists and military men began to say that the withdrawal of the Russian military base was unacceptable. This had nothing in common with the people’s indignation! The issue was politicized by the Armenian authorities,” the article reads.
Zhamanak reports: “Yesterday the Investigative Committee of Armenia spread a video of interrogation of Valery Permyakov, a soldier of the 102nd Russian military base. It was conducted by Armenian investigators at the Russian military base… However, the video of the interrogation of Permyakov makes the society doubt whether Permyakov is the only or the main participant of the tragic incident in Gyumri.
Armenian society had questions about this after details of the crime were published. And the video makes them deeper. The defendant is very calm and he doesn’t realize his guilt. It makes us think that he killed the family not in the heat of passion, but did it consciously, in cold blood, intentionally, absolutely realizing what he was doing. Or the Avetisyan family was killed by a different person, and Permyakov is a whipping boy,” the newspaper writes.
Continuing the topic, the editor-in-chief of Aravot writes: “Imagine that Permyakov was kept in a Yerevan jail and our investigators dealt with him. Do you think there were more political discussions on the crime than today? No, there were much fewer of them. It would be a purely criminal case of severe mass murder. While today I believe that the Russian side ignores our state and people, thinking that we have no right to legal decisions.”
Ayots Ashkhar reads: “The forecast that, after the cruel murder of a family in Gyumri, the processes would be politicized and there would be an attempt to exploit the awful crime in favour of certain interests, is coming true. The target is Armenian-Russian relations. Forces which are ready to spoil relations between our countries are very active these days. That’s a source of calls for withdrawal of the Russian military base.”
Aykakan Zhamanak reports: “The possibility of Iranian gas transit through Armenia is strategically important. The current key issue for Armenian diplomacy is building conditions to make Armenia a future partner of Iran in the gas transit sphere. The issue has not only economic, but geopolitical importance, and the citizens of Armenia should realize that we have only two potential allies in the sphere – Iran and Georgia.”
“To soften the deepening economic crisis in Armenia, the Armenian government tries to take a major loan from international financial structures and provide a major program for the money. It is construction of several major facilities over 1-1.5 years; as many people as possible will be involved in it,” Aykakan Zhamanak writes.
“Today we are making the old mistakes of 2008-2009,” Smbat Nasibyan, a former member of the Central Bank Board of Armenia, one of initiators of Converse Bank, told 168 Zham, speaking about enlargement of banks. According to him, a crisis already exists, and if the economy is passing though recession, banks have no resources or accumulated reserves to survive.
Smbat Nasibyan says that the goal of enlargement of banks is to solve problems of banks with soft assets.
“The secretary of the parliamentary faction Prosperous Armenia, Naira Zograbyan, a member of Prosperous Armenia Vage Ovannisyan, and the head of the Armenian National Congress faction, Levon Zurabyan, won’t participate in the winter session of PACE on January 26-30,” Zhokhovurd reports. According to the periodical, they rejected participation in the PACE session due to bad health.
“This time the Armenian delegation of PACE will include the vice-speaker of the parliament Ermine Nagdalyan who is the head of the delegation, members of the Republican faction Arpine Ovannisyan and Naira Karapetyan, the secretary of the faction of POE Mger Shakhgeldyan, and the head of Dashnaktsutyun Armen Rustamyan,” the newspaper reports.
