Author: Samvel Nahapetian

                                        Tuesday, 

Kocharian’s News Conference Disrupted By Protesters

        • Anush Muradian

Armenia - Protesters disrupt a news conference that was due to be held in 
Yerevan by former President Robert Kocharian, .

A group of protesters burst into a hotel in Yerevan on Tuesday, preventing 
former President Robert Kocharian from holding a news conference there.

Kocharian was due to meet the press at a conference hall of the Erebuni Plaza 
hotel one day after Armenia’s Court of Appeals released him from custody and 
ruled that he cannot be prosecuted for a 2008 post-election crackdown on 
opposition protesters.

The news conference was disrupted by several dozen mostly young protesters 
chanting “Robert murderer!” They blamed him for the deaths of eight protesters 
and two police servicemen during the breakup on March 1-2, 2008 of opposition 
demonstrations held in the wake of a disputed presidential election.

“We wanted to both disrupt the news conference and show the people’s attitude 
towards yesterday’s [Court of Appeals] verdict,” said one of the protesters, 
Karen Tovmasian. “It’s an obviously illegal verdict.”

“If [Kocharian] has something to say, let him say that in court,” he said.

Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, was seen leaving the hotel located 
in downtown Yerevan from a back entrance shortly after the incident. His office 
was quick to accuse Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of organizing the intrusion 
to stop Kocharian from speaking up. The intruders mainly included individuals 
close to Pashinian, it said in a statement.

The statement said that Kocharian planned to make “important political 
statements" and "answer many questions” at the press conference.

“Today’s incident seems to bear out growing concerns … that the new authorities 
do not tolerate dissent and can persecute political opponents, especially those 
whose political clout and prospects are a cause for serious concern to them,” 
it charged.

Pashinian appealed to supporters in a Facebook video address aired following 
the disruption of Kocharian’s press conference. “All individuals who committed 
crimes against the state and the people will be held accountable,” he declared.

“Rest assured that in Armenia there is no force capable of taking on the 
people’s power and stopping the victory of the popular revolution,” said 
Pashinian. “Whoever tries to stand in our way will end up in the garbage dump 
of history.”

Kocharian was arrested on July 27 on charges of “overthrowing the 
constitutional order” after the February 2008 election marred by opposition 
allegations of fraud. The charges stem from what Armenia’s Special 
Investigative Service (SIS) calls illegal use of the armed forces against 
supporters of the main opposition presidential candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosian. 
Kocharian rejects them as politically motivated.

The 63-year-old ex-president was set free on Monday immediately after the Court 
of Appeals ruled that the Armenian constitution gives him immunity from 
prosecution. The SIS condemned the decision as “illegal” and urged state 
prosecutors to ask the higher Court of Cassation to overturn it.

Pashinian played a key role in the 2008 protests. He subsequently spent nearly 
two years in prison for organizing “mass disturbances.” Pashinian appointed a 
new head of the SIS and ordered a fresh probe of the 2008 bloodshed shortly 
after coming to power in May this year.




Armenia, Allies ‘Still Discussing’ New CSTO Head

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia - Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan speaks at a news 
briefing in Yerevan, .

Official Yerevan on Tuesday declined to shed light on its efforts to replace 
the current secretary general of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO), Yuri Khachaturov, with another representative of Armenia.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry only reported continuing “discussions” among the 
CSTO members on Khachaturov’s possible successors. “The process is still 
ongoing,” said a ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian.

“As you know, we have initiated a replacement process,” Naghdalian told a news 
conference. “All other issues are in the domain of internal discussions only 
the results of which will be made public later on.”

Armenia moved to replace Khachaturov late last month after he was charged in 
connection with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. The Russian Foreign 
Ministry denounced the retired Armenian general’s prosecution as politically 
motivated and said Yerevan must formally “recall” him before trying to name his 
replacement.

It remains to be seen whether Russia and others CSTO member states, notably 
Kazakhstan, will agree to appoint another Armenian as secretary general of the 
CSTO. A Kremlin official told Russian media earlier this month that the 
Armenian authorities’ decision to prosecute Khachaturov dealt a “colossal blow 
to the image of the whole organization.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan 
Nazarbayev discussed the issue at a meeting held in Kazakhstan on Sunday. Both 
men referred to it as a “problem.”

The choice of the next secretary general is therefore expected to be high on 
the agenda of the next CSTO summit due in October or November.

“In advance of the CSTO summit many processes are taking place at different 
levels within the CSTO,” said Naghdalian. “Decisions to be made as a result of 
those discussions will be submitted to the Collective Security Council for 
approval … There is quite a bit of work that needs to be done before October.”




Trip To Iran ‘Not On Pashinian’s Agenda’


Iran - An Iranian honor guard displays Iranian and Armenian national flags at 
an official ceremony in Tehran, 7 August 2017.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has not yet scheduled his first visit to 
neighboring Iran, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, announced 
Pashinian’s “forthcoming” trip to Tehran after meeting with the Iranian 
ambassador to Armenia, Seyed Kazem Sajjad, last week. He gave no possible dates.

“As far as we know, such a visit is not on the prime minister’s agenda at the 
moment,” Anna Naghdalian, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, told 
reporters.

“Various-level visits to Iran are planned for this year, but no clear dates 
have been fixed yet,” she said.

Naghdalian stressed in that context that Armenia is committed to a “special 
relationship” with Iran which must not be adversely affected by “geopolitical 
developments.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani telephoned Pashinian on May 14 one week after 
the latter was elected prime minister. Rouhani reportedly complained about U.S. 
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 international 
agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and re-impose U.S. economic sanctions on 
Tehran.

The new Armenian government has made clear that it will press ahead with joint 
economic projects with the Islamic Republic despite the sanctions. Pashinian 
called for “new impetus” to Armenian-Iranian ties when he met with Sajjad on 
June 8.




Press Review



“Zhoghovurd” says that public reaction to an Armenian court’s decision to 
release former President Robert Kocharian from custody has been “extremely 
negative.” “The decision to free the former president was made by Judge 
Aleksandr Azarian who worked during Robert Kocharian’s rule in his staff as a 
senior expert at the secretariat of the Justice Council,” writes the paper 
highly critical of Kocharian. “There is a view that that was the main factor 
behind his decision.” It also emphasizes the fact that Kocharian has not been 
cleared of the coup charges stemming from the March 2008 violence in Yerevan.

“Besides, by keeping him under arrest for 17 days authorities demonstrated that 
there are no untouchable people [in Armenia] and that even the status of former 
president is not a guarantee for avoiding arrest or prosecution,” the paper 
says. It also says that the court’s controversial decision means the Armenian 
judiciary is no longer controlled by the government.

“The Armenian society is shocked and confused,” writes “Hraparak.” “It has no 
idea what is going on. It does not come to grips to what happened. Robert 
Kocharian is free. Some people insult and curse the judge while others are 
disappointed with Nikol Pashinian or feel that [Russian President Vladimir] 
Putin and [French President Emmanuel] Macron had a hand in that. Indignation 
has flooded social media and there is practically no rational analysis or view. 
There is nobody around who could tell the indignant society that moral and 
political responsibility and criminal responsibility are very different things. 
You can hate someone, think that he had for years rigged elections, stole from 
the budget, perpetrated the March 1 [2008] massacre. But there has to be 
concrete evidence for bringing criminal charges based on that.”

1in.am claims that Kocharian and his political team will now try to undermine 
the credibility and popularity of the new Armenian government. “This is the 
main tactical objective of Kocharian’s team,” says the online publication. 
“Yesterday’s decision by the Court of Appeals gave Kocharian a chance of legal 
rehabilitation.” It goes on to urge the authorities to bring more criminal 
charges against Kocharian and again ask courts to allow his arrest.

(Tigran Avetisian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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