Kocharyan, From Detention, Accuses Armenian Government of Political Prosecution

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government of using the justice system against political opponents, breaking his silence from detention as he faces corruption and money laundering charges.

Kocharyan’s office released his statement Sunday, Aug. 31, days after Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court ordered the former president held in pretrial detention. Bagrat Mikoyan, the head of Kocharyan’s office, made the statement public.

Kocharyan dismissed the case against him as “absurd” and said the accusations were so unfounded that they were difficult to describe “within the bounds of normative vocabulary.”

“To bring such completely baseless accusations requires either total moral degradation, legal idiocy, or complete subordination to Azerbaijan’s judicial system,” Kocharyan said.

He claimed the government had adopted an approach under which all former presidents of Artsakh should be behind bars.

Kocharyan also directed sharp criticism at Pashinyan, accusing the prime minister of experiencing “another manic escalation of his innate fears and complexes.” He said the country’s justice system was being used to “serve his phobias.”

“We could lose the country, and it seems that the people have lost their collective instinct for self-preservation,” Kocharyan said.

He accused the government of pulling Armenia into an “extremely dangerous adventure” and placing the country at the center of competing geopolitical interests among major powers.

Kocharyan argued that the prosecution was part of a broader effort to deepen divisions within Armenian society and create what he called “an atmosphere of fear, hatred, helplessness and doom.”

“These are necessary conditions for fulfilling all of Baku’s demands,” he said.

Kocharyan also accused Pashinyan of “surrendering Armenian lands” while weakening what he described as the country’s collective will and spiritual foundations.

“This must be stopped, or everyone should start learning Turkish,” Kocharyan said.

The statement comes less than a week after Kocharyan was detained on Aug. 25. Authorities carried out searches and other investigative actions that day involving the Kocharyan family and several companies linked to them.

The Anti-Corruption Court granted investigators’ request for pretrial detention early Aug. 27. A day earlier, Kocharyan’s eldest son, Sedrak Kocharyan, was ordered held for two months.

The law enforcement actions followed a heated exchange in parliament on Aug. 24 between Pashinyan and Levon Kocharyan, the former president’s son and a lawmaker with the opposition Armenia Alliance. During the confrontation, Pashinyan said property belonging to the Kocharyan family should be returned to the state.

Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee says investigators have obtained evidence that Kocharyan allegedly used his office while president to transfer valuable properties out of state ownership and acquire them at prices substantially below market value.

Investigators have also alleged bribery and transactions in which properties and company shares were placed in the names of Kocharyan’s family members.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has initiated criminal proceedings against Kocharyan on multiple counts of abuse of official authority, receiving particularly large bribes and money laundering.

Kocharyan, who served as Armenia’s president from 1998 to 2008, denies wrongdoing and says the case is politically motivated.

—

Support independent reporting from the region by subscribing to The Armenian Report. Our team is funded solely by readers like you.