YEREVAN, August 1. /ARKA/. Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, said yesterday night meaning the recent arrest of former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan that developments in Armenia contradict the new leadership’s statement that there will be no repressions against their political predecessors.
He is quoted by TASS as saying that Russia, as ally to Yerevan, has always been interested in stability of the Armenian state, and therefore Russia is concerned over developments in Armenia.
Lavrov hopes that the matter will be settled “constructively”.
“In recent days we have repeatedly voiced our concern to the Armenian leadership,” he said. “We expect that the situation will take a constructive course.”
A Yerevan district court late on July 27 ruled that the Special Investigative Service (SIS) could hold Kocharyan for two months in pre-trial detention pending investigation. The case dates back to late February and early March 2008 following the disputed presidential election, when then prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was declared the winner, angering the opposition, led by the first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and setting off 10 days of nonstop protests that led to a crackdown on March 1, in which 10 people were killed and more than 200 injured.
Kocharyan is now charged with toppling constitutional order in collusion with other persons, and the agency has applied to court for a detention warrant.
The same charge was brought against Yuri Khachaturov, secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, who had been the chief of the Yerevan garrison at the time of the bloody events of 2008.
However, Khachaturov was released on bail, for AMD 5 million.
Also former defense minister Mikael Harutyunyan is wanted by the law-enforcement authorities as a defendant in the case.
He is accused of illegally using the Armenian armed forces against opposition supporters who demonstrated in Yerevan in the wake of the disputed presidential election held in February 2008. -0—
