WHO DECEIVED ROBERT KOCHARYAN?
James Hakobyan
10:48 28/11/2012
In 2008, President Robert Kocharyan stated after March 1 that soon
evidence to crimes committed by the arrested opposition activists would
be disclosed and people would feel ashamed for having supported them.
The case was heard in court but no “shameful” evidence was disclosed
apart from the testimonies of “one policeman”. The charges against
the arrested oppositional activists were not proven, let alone the
“official” proofs.
Apparently, someone had told Robert Kocharyan a lie about the existence
of serious evidence. Who deceived him? Perhaps, the judiciary, the
prosecutor’s office, the police or the NSS, or someone else. It is
also possible that Kocharyan deceived the society. After all, on
those days, the state machine was doing nothing else but deceiving
the society, providing obvious lies about the presidential election
and the following events. Or if Robert Kocharyan allowed, or rather
ordered to lie, then he could calmly do the same about the proofs.
Kocharyan himself is supposed to be interested in the clarification of
this issue. Either he will confirm that he has deceived the society
being the incumbent president in 2008, or he will have to show those
who deceived and misled him.
But Robert Kocharyan seems to prefer forgetting his statement about
the proofs. Perhaps, he thinks that if he reminds something, people
will remind him about many other things to him. In this case, it is
better to keep silent.
For instance, the ex-foreign minister Vartan Oskanian who assumed the
role of the government’s spokesman on March 1 proposed that Nikol
Pashinyan talk about the March 1 in the office. Vartan Oskanian
explains his behavior on March 1 by his wish to prevent bloodshed.
Other statements, according to him, were made based on the information
he possessed at that moment. Meanwhile, mildly speaking, he committed
some mistakes then. So, who misled him? Did the same person deceive
both Oskanian and Kocharyan? Why does the former foreign minister
prefer speaking about March 1 events in Nikol Pashinyan’s office and
not publicly?
Here, we deal with the specific issue of political and governmental
legal responsibility. Someone deceived those officials who were
entitled to take decisions, and who took wrong decisions due to wrong
information; or these officials deceived the society trying to soften
the bloody consequences of their decisions. Maybe this is the reason
why they are silent about where they took the information from.