Rоbert Kocharyan charged under March 1 case: the second president considers it a bomb put under Armenian statehood

ArmInfo. The second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan was charged under March 1, 2008 events. As reported by the press service of the Special Investigative Committee, Kocharyan is charged under the first part of Article 301.1 of the RA Criminal Code for violating the constitutional order in the country during the events of March 1, 2008, having a preliminary agreement with other persons. The SIS decided to send a petition to the court to detain Kocharyan.

Former Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan is also being accused of the case, however he is wanted. The former head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, and incumbent CSTO Secretary General Yury Khachturov was also summoned for questioning on the case. To recall, after the presidential elections of 2008, in which Serzh Sargsyan won, clashes occurred between supporters of the opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan and the law enforcers as a result of which 10 people were killed, 200 were injured. In an interview to Yerkir Media, Kocharyan called this action "legal surrealism" and a dangerous phenomenon, considering the attempt to reconsider the decision of the Constitutional Court a real bomb placed under the statehood. If such practice continues, the March 1 case will be a real "curse" for the country. He believes that this is dangerous for the army and its reputation. Kocharyan believes that the case is completely politicized and lacks evidence. He stated that on March 1-2, the question was whether the Yerkrapah Volunteer Union would join the protesters or not.

Therefore, Kocharyan instructed by no means allowing that, to prevent the army from interfering in politics and everything was connected only with Yerkrapah. He informed that Armenia was then under attack on the contact line of the troops and Azerbaijan tried to take advantage of the moment. Therefore, the Defense Ministry strengthened its role. He considers that under the announced State of Emergency on March 1-2, he had the right to mobilize the army to protect important state facilities and he does not know what the army was doing in those days, it was not in his authority, but the responsibility of the Defense Ministry.

For Kocharyan, the intervention of the army was "unexpected" and in the future the commissions investigating these events, including the parliamentary one, testified to the non-interference of the army. Moreover, he was accused of late indtroduction of the emergency situation in the country. He accused the new authorities of revising history, extreme nihilism, in an attempt to turn everything upside down. He expressed the supposition that this criminal case is related to the fears that he - Kocharyan may return to politics. "I announced that I was not going to return to politics, but now I'm being dragged into it," he said. Kocharyan confirmed that he sometimes made statements against the regime of Serzh Sargsyan, criticized his policies, the Armenian-Turkish protocols, and pension reform. But he had hardly communicated with him over the years.

Kocharyan confirmed that the SIS decided to apply to the court for his detention and arrest. ''I imagine how happy the Azerbaijanis will be when they see that President of Armenia and the first president of Karabakh is detained, a person who increased Armenia's GDP 5–fold. He compared the situation with the developments in 1937 in Armenia. He noted that he is obliged to struggle and he will struggle, however he does not know what actions the court will take. He once again emphasized that a bomb is put under Armenian statehood.

Kocharyan infomred that currently he is working on memoirs and they will be very interesting as some information about domestic political events will be disclosed in them.