Wednesday,
Kocharian Not Political Prisoner, Says Parliamentary Opposition
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Supporters of former President Robert Kocharian demosntrate outside
a prison in Yerevan, .
The two opposition parties represented in Armenia’s parliament said on
Wednesday that they see no political reasons for the latest arrest of former
President Robert Kocharian.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals allowed investigators to arrest Kocharian on Tuesday
more than one month after he was freed by a lower court pending the outcome of
his trial. The ex-president and the decision as politically motivated.
“We see no elements of political persecution,” said Ani Samsonian, a senior
parliamentarian from the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK). “For us, this
case is a purely legal process.”
Iveta Tonoyan, a lawmaker representing the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK),
similarly said that the arrest and broader criminal proceedings against
Kocharian should be “viewed on the legal plane.”
Still, speaking at a joint news conference, both Tonoyan and another senior BHK
figure, deputy parliament speaker Vahe Enfiajian, declined to comment on
Kocharian’s latest claim that “there is neither law nor order” in Armenia.
Asked whether the BHK agrees with the claim, Enfiajian said: “I agree with the
supremacy of the law.”
By contrast, Kocharian’s prosecution has been repeatedly condemned by the
former ruling Republican Party (HHK) and other opposition groups not
represented in the current National Assembly. HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov
on Tuesday described Kocharian as a political prisoner.
In a separate statement, the HHK’s governing body said the Court of Appeals
made a “purely political decision.” “This process has nothing to do with
democracy, the rule of law and judicial independence,” it said.
Parliament deputies from the ruling My Step alliance continued to deny,
however, any political motives behind Kocharian’s prosecution. One of them,
Anna Karapetian, said law-enforcement authorities are simply seeking to hold
accountable those responsible for the 2008 post-election crackdown on
opposition protesters in Yerevan.
Lawyers To Appeal Against Kocharian’s Arrest
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- A Court of Appeals judge, Armen Danielian, reads out his decision to
allow investigators to again arrest former President Robert Kocarian, Yerevan,
.
Lawyers for former President Robert Kocharian said on Wednesday that they will
appeal against an Armenian court’s decision to allow his renewed arrest.
The Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a lower court’s May 18 decision to
free Kocharian from prison pending the outcome of his trial.
The ex-president’s lawyers told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that they will
challenge that decision in the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest body
of criminal justice. One of them, Aram Orbelian, said they will lodge the
appeal after receiving and examining the full text of the decision made by a
Court of Appeals judge, Armen Danielian.
Kocharian and his legal team decided to boycott the announcement of Danielian’s
ruling after the judge cut short the court hearings on the matter June 20. They
said that they were illegally prevented from presenting detailed arguments
against their client’s arrest.
Another defense lawyer, Hovannes Khudoyan, on Wednesday also questioned the
legality of what was Kocharian’s third arrest in less than a year. Khudoyan
argued that Armenia’s Constitutional Court agreed last week to hold hearings
and rule on two appeals lodged by him and his colleagues.
In those appeals, they suggested that Kocharian was arrested last year and
charged with usurping power in the wake of a 2008 presidential election in
breach of the Armenian constitution. The Constitutional Court scheduled the
first hearing on the matter for August.
“The Constitutional Court has thus voiced a suspicion that there is a problem
with the constitutionality [of Kocharian’s prosecution,]” claimed Khudoyan.
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian talks to reporters outside a
prison in Yerevan, .
The Court of Cassation already dealt with the high-profile case after another
Court of Appeals judge freed Kocharian from custody in August 2018. Acting on
prosecutors’ appeal, the high court ordered the Court of Appeals in November to
examine the case anew. The latter allowed law-enforcement authorities to press
charges against Kocharian and again arrest him in December.
Kocharian stands accused of having illegally used army units against opposition
protesters less than two months before completing his second and final
presidential term in April 2008. He denies the accusation as politically
motivated.
Eight protesters and two police officers were killed in street clashes that
broke out in central Yerevan late on March 1, 2008. Citing the deadly violence,
Kocharian declared a state of emergency and ordered army units into the capital
on that night.
The same coup charges were also leveled against Kocharian’s former chief of
staff Armen Gevorgian and two retired top army generals, Seyran Ohanian and
Yuri Khachaturov. The three men, who have not been held in pre-trial detention,
deny them.
Earlier this year, Kocharian and Gevorgian were also charged with bribe-taking.
They reject this accusation as well.
EU Envoy Encouraged By Armenian-Azeri Talks
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia -- Toivo Klaar (R), the EU special representative for the South
Caucasus, meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, June 26,
2019.
A senior European Union diplomat on Thursday praised Armenian-Azerbaijani
negotiations held in recent months and expressed hope for progress towards the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“It is very good that there is a consistent process of meetings that seems to
be going on,” Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative for the South
Caucasus, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service in Yerevan.
“Of course, it’s not easy,” said Klaar. “This is a conflict that has very deep
roots and we cannot expect solutions from one day to the next. But the
important thing is that there are meetings, there are substantial discussions,
and of course the EU is there to support this.”
“I personally hope that this process is a somehow a self-reinforcing mechanism
and … that despite the difficulties of the last month we will actually see a
sort of progress in the general situation,” he added.
The Karabakh conflict was high on the agenda of Klaar’s talks with Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian and Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian held earlier
in the day. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mnatsakanian briefed
the EU envoy on his latest meeting with Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov that took place in Washington on June 20.
The meeting mediated by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group followed an upsurge in ceasefire violations along the Karabakh
“line of contact” which came after several months of relative calm on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani frontlines. The mediators said they urged the parties to
“observe the ceasefire strictly and refrain from any provocative action.”
Klaar said he discussed the escalation with Pashinian and Mnatsakanian. “Even
though there are these lines of communication [between Armenian and Azerbaijani
leaders,] of course in fragile situations such incidents can happen, such
deaths can occur, and that means more needs to be done in terms of building
confidence between the sides and reducing tensions even further,” he said. “I
hope that the Washington meeting contributed to that.”
Klaar also reaffirmed the EU’s pledges to support financially a possible
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord. “When we get to that point, to larger
agreements where financial support is needed to implement them, I am sure that
the EU will be there to support them,” he said.
Asked whether the two warring sides are still far from reaching that point, the
envoy replied: “I honestly don’t know.”
Press Review
“Zhamanak” reports that supporters of former President Robert Kocharian
demonstrated in Yerevan on Tuesday after Armenia’s Court of Appeals allowed
investigators to arrest him again. “This is certainly not a new phenomenon,
Robert Kocharian has used that tool as part of his legal defense tactic for
some time,” writes the paper very critical of the ex-president. “The question
is whether the former president will try to switch to a tougher and more
radical use of that tool and to create problems for the authorities. That would
not be prudent because Kocharian lacks the most important factor possessed by
the authorities: strong public support.”
According to “Zhoghovurd,” the head of the Armenian government’s Committee for
the Management of State Property, Narek Babayan, continues to demand that a
military high school of the Armenian Defense Ministry vacate its expensive
premises located in the resort town of Dilijan. The property had been supposed
to serve as a resort complex for employees of the State Revenue Committee. The
paper says former Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian was right to have it
transferred to the military school because in a country remaining in a de facto
state of war “it is extremely important that people have incentives to become
military officers.” “And given all this, it is weird, to say the least, that
Narek Babayan continues to insist that those luxurious conditions are too much
for our military and that they can receive military education in more modest
conditions.”
“Aravot” says that Kocharian behaves arrogantly during court hearings and his
conversations with journalists. “He also frequently lies, in particular about
transforming Armenia’s ‘hell’ into ‘paradise’ from 1998 to 2008,” editorializes
the paper’s editor, Aram Abrahamian. “But sometimes life is turned into hell by
those vicious leaders whose bodyguards kill people for ‘wrongly’ greeting them.
“I feel more secure when that person is in jail. But if we put aside emotions,
we need to understand in the purely legal sense what the point of arresting the
former president is. Kocharian is not the kind of person who would like to flee
[the country.] Will he influence the probe of the [March 2008] case? Of course
he will. A figure possessing serious financial and media resources has the
ample capacity to do.” But Kocharian will also be in a position to exert such
influence even from prison, concludes the paper.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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