Yerevan July 27
Tatevik Shahunyan. "I consider it unreasonable and illogical the investigation's proposal to choose arrest for RA former President Robert Kocharyan as a preventive measure." Eventually, Kocharyan himself appeared for questioning, stated that he intended to remain until the end of the investigation and answer all questions. I do not understand haste of the investigation bodies in an attempt to apply arrest against second president of Armenia, the first president of Artsakh, a man who made a great contribution to the liberation struggle of the NKR and to the development of Armenia, Spokesperson of the Republican Party, Deputy Speaker of the parliament Eduard Sharmazanov said in a conversation with the correspondent of ArmInfo.
"Kocharyan was not afraid of enemy bullets at the time, and now he is unlikely to be afraid of the investigation, so the hasty intention to arrest him is not clear for me," the Spokesman said, while agreeing to some extent with Kocharyan's opinion that the recent processes around him may pursue the goal of preventing the possible participation of the second president in the forthcoming political processes, in particular, early parliamentary elections.
Sharmazanov did not exclude manifestations of personal and political motives in the case on the events of March 1, 2008. "However, if this is so, then such manifestations can have extremely negative consequences for the state," he said. The Deputy Speaker also stressed that there are many questions in the legal process, which, at the very least, cause misunderstanding. "Thus, Article 140 of the Constitution of Armenia envisages that the head of state can not be prosecuted during his/her tenure and after that for actions arising from his office." Now the question is whether the announcement of the state of emergency during the March 2008 events was within the limits of Kocharyan's authority? In addition, he was charged with overthrowing the Constitutional order, which he himself was the guarantor of when he was president. How could a person who was a guarantor of the constitutional order, to overthrow it himself? There is another point that causes a legal casus – Kocharyan is charged under an article that was adopted a year after his resignation. I think that all these dubious points should be solved by the investigation, which hopefully will be fair and objective, "Sharmazanov summed up.
Touching upon the accusation against the CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, who in 2008 occupied the post of the head of the Yerevan garrison, Sharmazanov noted that it could cast a shadow on Armenia's image in the CSTO, and at other international platforms.