Kavkazsky Uzel reported that on 26 July, former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan was charged with overturning the constitutional order by dispersing protests in Yerevan on 1-2 Mach 2008. The investigation petitioned for his arrest and the court ruled to arrest Kocharyan on 27 July.
"First, they want to isolate me from involvement in political processes and second, they want to say that they solved the 1 March [case]. However, what are they going to solve by doing so? There are no grounds for these accusations," Kocharyan said in his interview to Yerkir Media [TV affiliated to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun party – ARFD].
He also noted that he had said on many occasions previously that he was reluctant to return to politics. "However, this is a case, when it is not you, who is dealing with politics, but politics is dealing with you," Lragir.am quoted the former president.
Kocharyan stressed in the interview that he had been writing a book over the past two years. It is autobiographic and it comprises the whole history of the recent years, including his personal conversations. It is going to be quite interesting, Armenian Report said.
Badalyan: Kocharyan has not announced his intention to run in elections
Robert Kocharyan preferred to speak about the forthcoming parliamentary elections to substantiate his statement on political reprisals, but he failed to specify whether he intended to participate in them or not, political observer Hakob Badalyan said.
"It is unclear how he can run in the elections and which political force he plans to participate in the elections with, whether he will create a party or will cooperate with one of the parties existing at the moment. A lot of things are unclear here. However, at least up to now, Kocharyan has unveiled nothing regarding elections," Hakob Badalyan explained to Kavkazsky Uzel.
According to Badalyan, Kocharyan himself is soberly assessing his chances in case he returns to politics and prefers to be in the shade of a specific political force. "On the one hand, Robert Kocharyan may have financial resources. However, as we can see, the struggle against corruption is penetrating politics too. Therefore, Kocharyan's chances are not big in this regard," the political observer believes.
In addition, he said that Robert Kocharyan lost influence as a politician back in February 2015, when then Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan levelled accusations against the leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, Gagik Tsarukyan. The second Armenian president did not support Tsarukyan, although it was believed that Robert Kocharyan created the Prosperous Armenia party in 2006 in opposition to Sargsyan and the Ruling Republican Party [of Armenia – RPA] , the political analyst said.
He also pointed to the neutral position of the Prosperous Armenia party after Kocharyan's arrest.
Support for Robert Kocharyan by politicians is linked to investigation into the criminal case, Hakob Badalyan believes. "Yes, Kocharyan was at the head of this system on 1 March 2008, but it was the mechanism as a whole that acted. Kocharyan showed in his interview that he was not acting alone and said very clearly that all responsible people should find themselves in the spotlight. In other words, he said that all of them were in one ship and he does not intend to sink to the bottom alone," Badalyan said.
On the one hand, politicians realise that they are facing the problem of support, but on the other hand, they also realise that support for Kocharyan implies a conflict with society, "most of whom are very negatively disposed towards Kocharyan", the political analyst said.
"There will nevertheless be people, who will support Kocharyan. However, they must understand what they are going to do if his guilt is proved, as it is about criminally liable actions," Badalyan said with confidence.
Badalyan: No Kocharyan's proteges remaining in power
Previously, Robert Kocharyan did not speak about his participation in the forthcoming elections, but the influence of the second Armenian president has significantly weakened, political analyst Armen Badalyan said.
As he said, today, Robert Kocharyan "is hardly as influential as he was 10 years ago, as a lot has changed in this country since then".
"The political forces that have always been with him do not have the influence they used to have either. Therefore, only the ARFD and RPA have supported him directly or indirectly now. However, the RPA is in such a condition now that they need support themselves," he explained.
"I do not think that the government viewed a real threat for themselves in Kocharyan, because he is not a force. He had supporters five years ago and representatives of the ARFD and RPA supported him directly or indirectly, but following the change of power in Armenia, government structures, including the judiciary and the power-wielding agencies, were completely cleaned of his cadres," Badalyan noted.
He also said that politicians would not avoid Kocharyan, as he was "stigmatised with the 1 March case".
Mehrabyan: Diaspora not to support Kocharyan
Ruben Mehrabyan, an expert of the Centre for Political and International Studies, described Kocharyan's statement as "banal demagoguery".
According to Mehrabyan, Kocharyan is trying to make the case political. "And he is politicising it in the context of actual politics, where his approval rating is equal to zero," political analyst said with confidence.
The reason for that "is not only 1 March 2008, but also the economic policy that was aimed at handing over the whole potential under Russian control according to the 'property in exchange for debts' deal," Ruben Mehrabyan explained to Kavkazsky Uzel.
Mehrabyan believes that the diaspora will remain indifferent and will not support Kocharyan. "At this moment, Russia may provide most powerful assistance, but given the incumbent government's decisive actions, the support is not going to produce any results," he said.
It is noteworthy that Hovsep Khurshudyan, a senior expert for economic and diaspora issues of the Armenian Centre for Strategic and National Studies (ACSNS), told Kavkazsky Uzel in 2008 that it was under Robert Kocharyan that Russia received the controlling stakes of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and the fifth power-generating unit of the Hrazdan thermoelectric power plant. In 2003, Armenia's debt to Russia amounting to 93.760m dollars was annulled by means of handing over to the latter 100 per cent of the shares of five Armenian enterprises, including the Mars closed joint-stock company (estimated at 56.290m dollars) and the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines (2.750m dollars), he also said.
Two parties accused the Armenian government of political reprisals against Kocharyan
On 27 and 28 July, the ARFD and RPA made statements, expressing concern about the accusations against former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.
"The party welcomes measures aimed at establishing law and order and believes that the processes should unfold only within legal frames, without giving rise to various interpretations and political speculations. We regard bringing charges of overturning the constitutional order in connection with the '21 March case' against Robert Kocharyan as an alarming step, which can be interpreted as political persecution," Kavkazsky Uzel quoted the statement by the ARFD.
The accusation "gives the impression of political reprisals and is absurd from the legal point of view", the statement by the RPA says. "The situation that has taken shape is a threat to democratic development and a blow to the process of building a rule-of-law state. The politically motivated criminal case and the charges threaten constitutionality in Armenia," the RPA statement said.
We would like to remind you that lawyers said earlier that the accusation against second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan was based on the testimonies of anonymous witnesses and was devoid of any concrete aspects and that the court disregarded his immunity. Kocharyan's companion Viktor Soghomonyan described his case as political persecution, reminding of promises by Nikol Pashinyan, who ruled out political revenge and reprisals against opponents before he came to power.