Epress.am News from Armenia
New Times party leader Aram Karapetyan has not been and won’t be on a path with second president of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharian. Karapetyan said this himself in response to a question by Epress.am as to whether he would work with Kocharian if the latter returns to politics.
“Even during the first elections when there was a suggestion to be with him, I stayed with Stephan Demirchyan till the end — I didn’t receive any posts and I didn’t enter into any financial transactions. I am not going to go on any path with Robert Kocharian; I consider him an evil in the processes in Armenia. I consider that this man has had a serious role in Armenia being in the situation it’s in today, has had a great role in bringing Serzh Sargsyan to power, who now adopts a completely different course, and for whom he has enough serious disappointments,” he said during a press conference in Yerevan today.
“I think that Robert Kocharian once and for all should understand that all the roads to returning to politics are closed. And someone who fired on March 1 [2008, when authorities fired on protestors following a contested presidential election], during whose term Oct. 27 [1999, the parliamentary shooting] happened and there was a period of political assassinations… till today, the man says that the HHSh [Pan-Armenian National Movement] at the time hit people, when he was a HHSh board member; furthermore, he’s been a president. Yeah, and then? Did you know what you did as president? Or now, why don’t you go and say, as the second president of Armenia, who committed those murders, who did those? Or how can you give such an interview that doesn’t include any explanation whatsoever? They ask him, did he give the order to shoot on Mar. 1 or not, and he explains to us that Christ was wrongly crucified. They say, people were killed; he says, they weren’t demonstrators — so if they weren’t demonstrators, did he have the right to fire?” said Karapetyan.