Levon Kocharyan: The Armenian government is not seeking to solve the October 27 case, but is trying to link it to specific individuals

ArmInfo. The current Armenian government is not seeking to solve the October 27, 1999 case, but is trying to link specific individuals to it. Levon Kocharyan, a member of the Armenia faction, stated this on October 27 at the Yerablur military pantheon.

He recalled that after the terrorist attack in the Armenian parliament on October 27, 1999, the investigative actions and the case were carried out under the supervision of individuals, particularly the families who suffered as a result of these events. "The case, if you recall, was investigated by then-military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan, who was appointed to this position by Vazgen Sargsyan's family. He held this position for a long time, and held high positions under the current government. "If I'm not mistaken, it was he who stated that the case had been investigated," Kocharyan told reporters.

He noted that for a long time, the question has been posed as if the existence of the mastermind behind the attack was an established fact. "I'll be honest: I don't know if that's true. But I know that on that day, all the scoundrels who committed this atrocity were captured alive, and some of them are still serving their sentences in prison. For me and my family, it is completely unacceptable and insulting that attempts are being made to shift blame in this case. Beyond how difficult that day was for our state, it was a personal tragedy for our family, since... "Friends of our family," the opposition figure emphasized.

Reacting to claims that the events of October 27th benefited Armenia's second president, Robert Kocharyan, the MP noted that such assertions are the height of vileness. "I've already said that I consider this event a personal tragedy for our family. Commenting on such assertions is absurd," Kocharyan noted.

When asked why the current government isn't investigating the case properly, the opposition figure noted that he personally doesn't see a sincere desire to solve anything. "If we assume that something has truly remained unsolved—and I don't know if that's the case—then I don't see the current government truly wanting to solve it. I don't think that's their motivation." As with other cases, such as the events of March 1, 2008, their motivation is not to solve these cases, but to link them to specific individuals. They assign culprits themselves, and then conduct the case in such a way as to provide legal justification for their assumptions in one way or another. Everyone probably knows, and perhaps even saw, the document placed before Robert Kocharyan when he was negotiating with the terrorists to prevent further casualties. While the bodies of the dead, including Vazgen Sargsyan, had not yet been removed, he was presented with a document demanding that specific people be appointed to certain positions. One of them was Andranik Kocharyan, an MP from the Civil Contract party, the opposition leader noted.

Overall, the MP called for no mystical theories to be created around this case. As a reminder, on October 27, 1999, a five-member armed group led by former journalist Nairi Hunanyan stormed the National Assembly of Armenia and shot everyone present. Prominent government and political figures were killed in the attack, including National Assembly Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Vice Speaker of Parliament Yuri Bakhshyan, Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Miroyan, Minister of Operational Issues Leonard Petrosyan, and members of Parliament Armenak Armenakyan, Mikhail Kotanyan, and Henrik Abrahamyan. The trial concluded in December 2003. Six defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, and one (Hamlet Stepanyan) to 14 years in prison.

In December 2019, the resumption of the investigation was announced. Almost seven years later, on October 27, 2026, the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia reported that more than a dozen interrogations had been conducted and requests for information had been sent as part of the investigation into this case. During this time, the supervisory agency also sent three instructions to the operational body to conduct operational-search measures. By decision of the prosecutor, several classified documents were seized and examined, and confidential investigative actions are being conducted.