‘Consider me back’ says former Armenian President

‘Consider me back’, former President Robert Kocharyan replied when asked if he was returning to Armenian politics in an interview with Armenian TV station Yerkir Media on Thursday. Kocharyan, who is awaiting trial charged with ‘breaching the con­sti­tu­tion­al order’, put his decision down to the ‘inex­pe­ri­ence’ of the current gov­ern­ment.

Kocharyan said that the ‘format’ of his political activ­i­ties would depend on a ‘complex geopo­lit­i­cal situation’, which was the reason for his comeback, and which, according to him, the current gov­ern­ment has failed to com­pre­hend. He said he would reach out to ‘different people dif­fer­ent­ly’ for political coop­er­a­tion.

Among the foreign policy chal­lenges facing Armenia, Kocharyan listed strained Russian–American and Iranian–American relations, as well as Turkey’s ‘aggres­sive policy’ that he said was no longer con­strained by its pro-European aspi­ra­tions. Kocharyan said the gov­ern­ment consisted of ‘incom­pe­tent indi­vid­u­als’ too ‘inex­pe­ri­enced’ to deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict res­o­lu­tion process.

The former president crit­i­cised Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for what he called Armenia’s dis­en­gage­ment from the nego­ti­a­tion process. ‘The head of state cannot step aside and say that he is washing his hands’, said Kocharyan, referring to Pashinyan’s call for the direct par­tic­i­pa­tion of Nagorno-Karabakh’s author­i­ties in the nego­ti­a­tion process. On a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh on 9 May, Pashinyan argued that nego­ti­a­tions would be inef­fec­tu­al without the party in conflict at the table, and that Armenia could not act on its behalf.

Kocharyan called Pashinyan unqual­i­fied for his post, adding of the new gov­ern­ment that it would be impos­si­ble to have suf­fi­cient expe­ri­ence after only having worked for ‘some non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions’ financed by George Soros, and possibly with money ‘coming from Azer­bai­jan or Turkey through various funds’.

Kocharyan under­lined that ‘even the worst nego­ti­a­tions are better than war’, so the current Armenian gov­ern­ment should be taking part in them. The former president expressed a readiness to meet Pashinyan, to share his expe­ri­ence in Nagorno-Karabakh nego­ti­a­tions.

He also insisted in the interview that cor­rup­tion is omnipresent, occurring even in the US and France, but denied using his powers for personal enrich­ment. Kocharyan further rebutted opponents’ claims that his admin­is­tra­tion fostered a ‘clearly struc­tured cor­rup­tion pyramid’ and monop­o­lies, offering as evidence the high rates of economic growth under his pres­i­den­cy.

He said that the fuel market was diverse, ‘supplied by 16–17 companies’, while ‘gas supply and elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion are natural monop­o­lies’. In contrast, Kocharyan crit­i­cised the gov­ern­ment for a lack of economic strategy, which according to him, ‘cannot be replaced’ by the Pashinyan government’s anti-cor­rup­tion campaign, nor with ‘arbitrary tax audits’ that ‘scare off investors’.

‘Fighting cor­rup­tion — it’s not just arrests, demon­stra­tions of power, or people in masks. It is, first and foremost, a series of steps in a number of direc­tions’, said Kocharyan. The former president com­plained that the gov­ern­ment had yet to present ‘any actions or documents’ for economic devel­op­ment.

Kocharyan down­played the cel­e­bra­tion of Pashinyan’s 100th day in office, sug­gest­ing that even a gathering of 100,000 people in the center of Yerevan does not represent an ‘over­whelm­ing majority’ of Armenian people. Kocharyan described sup­port­ers of Pashinyan and his admin­is­tra­tion as an ‘active’ and ‘aggres­sive’ part of society that is unwilling to let others voice their opinions. He urged those being silent ‘not to fear’ and to ‘actively par­tic­i­pate in political life’.

On 26 July, the author­i­ties charged Kocharian over the dispersal of anti-gov­ern­ment protests in 2008 that left 10 people dead. The Special Inves­ti­ga­tion Service argued that involving the army in the political standoff resulted in the ‘overthrow of the con­sti­tu­tion­al order’, pun­ish­able by 10–15 years in prison. The former president has claimed that the army was not involved in clashes with pro­test­ers.

Kocharyan accused inves­tiga­tive bodies of abusing their authority by ‘forming negative expec­ta­tions’ of his guilt before the trial. He said the case against him was ‘based on lies’ and that the charges were ‘polit­i­cal­ly motivated’. If his case were presented to the European Court of Human Rights, Kocharyan said, he was confident that he’d be ‘cleared of any wrong­do­ing’.

The former president pointed out that he was not allowed to speak about the details of the case against him, crit­i­cis­ing the secrecy that prevents him from making his case publicly. He argued, however, that if he had not announced a state of emergency in March 2008, he would be crit­i­cised today for inaction and ‘the inability to act [accord­ing­ly] as president’. ‘After all, at the core of Armenian law, the president is the guarantor of con­sti­tu­tion­al order’, Kocharyan noted.

The former president said that pros­e­cu­tions against him and other former senior officials would com­pli­cate Armenia’s rela­tion­ship with Russia. He also harshly crit­i­cised Pashinyan for urging Russia to ‘adapt to new realities’.

Kocharyan’s interview, his second with Yerkir since being charged, was aired three days after the Court of Appeals ruled his pre-trial detention unlawful and released him. This decision was met with frus­tra­tion from the author­i­ties, and pro­test­ers forced Kocharyan to cancel a press-con­fer­ence on 14 August.

[Read more about protest against the former president on OC Media: Armenian former president Kocharyan released on bail]

Emil Sanamyan, a fellow at the Institute of Armenian Studies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Southern Cal­i­for­nia, said Pashinyan was likely to retain strong public support and achieve a majority win in the next elections. Sanamyan told OC Media that the Repub­li­cans and the Armenian Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Fed­er­a­tion, the former ruling parties that together still hold a majority of seats in Armenia’s par­lia­ment, the National Assembly, have already backed Kocharyan.

‘The Kocharyan–Pashinyan race is likely to emerge as the main domestic political contest of the next several years. Armenia has an estab­lished tradition of former leaders staging a political comeback. This happened under Ter-Petrosyan, Kocharyan, and Sargsyan — when they were chal­lenged by Manukyan, Demirchyan, and Ter-Petrosyan, respec­tive­ly — though none were ulti­mate­ly suc­cess­ful. We seem to be wit­ness­ing a new page of this tradition’, said Sanamyan.

Grigor Atanesian, a political com­men­ta­tor and Fulbright scholar at The Missouri School of Jour­nal­ism, told OC Media that the ‘Repub­li­cans are still taken aback by their defeat, whereas Kocharyan appears more energetic and proactive’. He said he con­se­quent­ly expects Kocharyan to lead the ‘counter-rev­o­lu­tion­ary movement’. According to Atanesian, despite running an aggres­sive social media campaign and placing ‘puff pieces’ in the media, ‘Kocharyan’s chances of gaining sub­stan­tial political support are miniscule’.