Armenian political analysts criticize Robert Kocharyan's words about political persecution

Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, arrested in the case of the dispersal of demonstrators in 2008, no longer has any serious political influence and has not earlier announced his participation in the election, political analysts stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 26, Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, was charged with overthrowing the constitutional order in connection with the dispersal of protest actions in Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008. In the evening on July 27, the court arrested Robert Kocharyan.

Robert Kocharyan has associated the charges against him with political persecution. "Firstly, they want to isolate me from possible participation in political processes, and secondly, they want to say that they solved the case of March 1. But what will they solve? There are no grounds for the accusations," Robert Kocharyan said in his interview given to the "YerkirMedia" on July 26.

To justify his statement on political persecution, Robert Kocharyan preferred to mention a connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections, but he did not specify whether he had any intention to take part in them, political observer Akop Badalyan said.

According to Akop Badalyan, Robert Kocharyan himself soberly evaluates his chances in case of a return to the politics, and he prefers to stay in a shadow of one or another political force. "On the one hand, Robert Kocharyan can have financial resources. However, as we see, after the 'velvet revolution,' the fight against corruption will come into the politics. So, from this point of view, Robert Kocharyan has little chances," the political analyst believes.

Ruben Mekhrabyan, an expert from the Centre for Political and International Studies, has called the Robert Kocharyan's statement "the banal demagogy."

According to Ruben Mekhrabyan, Robert Kocharyan attempts to transfer the case to the political sphere. "Meanwhile, he tries to transfer it to the political sphere in terms of the actual politics, where his rating is zero," the political analyst believes.

The above takes place, since "not only the event of March 1, 2008, but also the economic policy was aimed at transferring the entire potential to the Russian control over the deal 'property in exchange for debt'," Ruben Mekhrabyan explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 31, 2018 at 02:17 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.