Ex-president Kocharyan questioned over Armenia’s deadly 2008 crackdown

Former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan has been summoned for ques­tion­ing over the March 2008 crackdown on protests that left 10 dead. The author­i­ties issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for former Defence Minister Mikael Haru­tyun­yan, who is out of the country, for using military force against the oppo­si­tion rallies.

The Special Inves­ti­ga­tion Service, which inves­ti­gates crimes by officials, accused Haru­tyun­yan of breaching the con­sti­tu­tion through giving a clan­des­tine order to involve the army into a political process.

Critics of the crackdown pointed out that author­i­ties had no grounds to enforce a martial law, as article 119 of the Con­sti­tu­tion allows the dec­la­ra­tion of a state of emergency only if the country is under armed attack or there is an imminent danger thereof.

The Special Inves­ti­ga­tion Service argued that involving the military in civilian and political matters violated article 14 of the Con­sti­tu­tion, which says that armed forces are to maintain neu­tral­i­ty in political matters. They said that by quashing ‘peaceful protests’, the author­i­ties usurped power and ‘deprived people of their right to exercise their sov­er­eign­ty through elections’.

In May 2010, an Armenian par­lia­men­tary fact-finding group reported that  Defence Minister Mikael Harutyunyan’s 23 February order violated Con­sti­tu­tion and a Law on Defence.

Another former Defense Minister, Seyran Ohanyan, who was serving as Chief of Staff of the armed forces in 2008, was also ‘recently’ ques­tioned by inves­ti­ga­tors, news.am reports.

Speaking to jour­nal­ists on Wednesday, the head of the Special Inves­ti­ga­tion Service, Sasun Khacha­tryan, said inves­ti­ga­tors will speak with anyone who might provide infor­ma­tion on the case, regard­less of who they are. Khacha­tryan was appointed in June by the gov­ern­ment of new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The case concerns the dispersal of mass protests in Yerevan on 1 March 2008 after Serzh Sargsyan was declared the winner of pres­i­den­tial elections. The oppo­si­tion rallied for around 10 days claiming Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first Armenian President, from 1991–1998, was the rightful winner and demanding a recount. The initial protests were report­ed­ly autho­rised by the author­i­ties and were then followed by ‘spon­ta­neous’ protests.

The author­i­ties did not intervene until 1 March, according to alle­ga­tions against Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights. Oppo­si­tion parties claimed the crackdown involved not only civilian law enforce­ment agencies, but also the army, as outgoing President Kocharyan declared a state of emergency. A number of prominent oppo­si­tion politi­cians were arrested in the aftermath.

1 March 2008, Yerevan

Com­ment­ing on the arrest warrant out for Haru­tyun­yan, the head of the National Security Service, Artur Vanetsyan, said that Haru­tyun­yan did not flee the country, as when he left Armenia there were no criminal pro­ceed­ings against him.

In March 2018, the then oppo­si­tion Yelk block, of which Prime Minister Pashinyan is a part, condemned the use of lethal force against pro­test­ers in the wake of the 19 February 2008 pres­i­den­tial election. On 6 March, Pashinyan requested that the Prosecutor's Office question ex-President Kocharyan on his claims, which were reit­er­at­ed by other members of the Repub­li­can Party, that the March pro­test­ers were armed and shot at police.

[Read more about the March 2018 res­o­lu­tion on OC Media: Armenia’s par­lia­ment to discuss deadly 2008 crackdown]

Of the families of the 10 deceased, nine appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2011, according to the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), who is rep­re­sent­ing them in court. The court has yet to make a judgement on the case.