RFE/RL Press Review

RFE/RL’s Press Review has an interesting digest of commentary on the 19 February presidential election in Armenia. Obviously, the pro-governmental Hayots Ashkhar talks as if nothing untowards happened on election day while the pro-opposition Azg and Aravot newspapers take a slightly different approach to former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian.

“Hayots Ashkhar” says that by voting for Serzh Sarkisian Armenians preferred a “predictable future.” “With its vote, the majority of Armenia’s voters has explicitly said no to attempts to escalate the political situation in Armenia and provoke excesses,” writes the pro-government paper. This verdict, it says, is “final and not subject to revision.”

“Aravot” […] says the government and its loyal media should stop referring to Ter-Petrosian as “the HHSh leader” or admit that the former ruling party has at least 350,000 members. “For a country like Armenia, 350,000 is a very serious number, and one can assume that they voted for Ter-Petrosian not because they love Levon and the HHSh very much but because they hope to get rid of the current authorities,” it says.

“Azg” says Ter-Petrosian did not win the election even if one assumes that his fraud allegations are true. The paper says he should therefore stop challenging the official vote results in the streets. “He must know well how the voter and their will are ignored,” it says. “In 1996 he did just that to more than half a million voters who elected Vazgen Manukian.”