Pashinyan Vows to Strip Kocharyan, Sargsyan and Tsarukyan of Allegedly Illicit Wealth, Says They Should Live on Pensions and Lawful Income

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday that former Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, along with businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, should be left to live on their pensions and lawful income while any property obtained illegally is returned to the Armenian state.

Pashinyan made the remarks to reporters after a government meeting, a day after a court ordered Kocharyan held in pretrial detention in a bribery and money laundering case.

“The political issue is this: When the first of the month approaches, Robert Kocharyan, Gagik Tsarukyan and Serzh Sargsyan should open their phones and check whether their pensions have been deposited,” Pashinyan said.

He said the three men should live only on income obtained legally and that assets acquired unlawfully should be recovered by the state.

“Everything they acquired illegally must be returned, piece by piece, to the Republic of Armenia and its people,” Pashinyan said. “There is no other option. If this does not happen, it means there needs to be another revolution.”

Pashinyan, who came to power during Armenia’s 2018 Velvet Revolution, has long accused members of the country’s former political establishment of accumulating wealth through corruption. Kocharyan and Sargsyan both served as president before Pashinyan came to power, while Tsarukyan is a wealthy businessman and leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party.

Asked about the criminal cases involving Kocharyan and his family, Pashinyan also questioned how the former president accumulated his wealth.

“No one asks where Robert Kocharyan got those billions from,” he said. Referring to claims that the wealth came from business activities, Pashinyan added: “Who are you kidding? Are they such brilliant businessmen?”

Kocharyan, Armenia’s president from 1998 to 2008, was ordered into pretrial detention after the Anti-Corruption Court granted an investigator’s request to hold him for two months. He had been taken from the courthouse to a hospital overnight, and the hearing continued in his absence.

Prosecutors accuse Kocharyan of receiving a large bribe through abuse of official authority and of money laundering. His eldest son, Sedrak Kocharyan, has also been placed in pretrial detention on the same charges.

Kocharyan and his allies have rejected the proceedings against him as politically motivated.

Lawmakers from the opposition Armenia Alliance condemned the detention in parliament Thursday, calling it an act of “Pashinyan’s tyranny” rather than justice. They accused the prime minister of targeting political figures who oppose his government and its policies.

Pashinyan’s comments signal that the government intends to keep the recovery of allegedly illicit wealth at the center of its campaign against corruption, even as the prosecution of one of Armenia’s former presidents deepens the confrontation between the government and opposition.

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