Not Just Political but Also Geopolitical: "Pasts"

According to the "Pasts" newspaper, Robert Kocharyan, the second President of Armenia, has celebrated his birthday for the second time in the "Yerevan-Center" penitentiary. He shared several observations from his confinement.

Robert Kocharyan, the leader of the "Armenia" alliance, believes, "We can lose the country, and it seems that the people have lost their instinct for collective self-preservation." Regarding the case against him, he stated, "The latest criminal accusation is so absurd that it is difficult to assess it within normative terminology. However, I will attempt to do so. Generally speaking, to present such unfounded accusations, either there is complete moral degradation, or legal idiocy, or total subjugation to Azerbaijan's judicial system. That is their approach; every president of Artsakh must be in prison."

President Kocharyan also expressed his conviction that the current authorities have dragged the country into a highly dangerous gamble, placing it in the center of geopolitical interests of major powers. He noted, "The aim of the authorities is obvious: to divide society, create an atmosphere of fear, hatred, helplessness, and doom. These are the necessary conditions for fulfilling all of Baku's demands."

Additionally, Robert Kocharyan's office chief Bagrat Mikoyan, member of the National Assembly from the "Armenia" faction Anna Grigoryan, and lawyer Aram Orbelyan held a press conference yesterday. The key takeaway from the current realities and the statements made during this conference is that the ongoing persecution against President Robert Kocharyan and his family members is not only purely political but also has enormous geopolitical undertones. Essentially, this is a geopolitical "case."

It is not coincidental that there are circulating rumors that at a possible meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan and Russian President Putin in Bishkek, the issue of arresting President Kocharyan for the fourth time may be raised. But this is not the only circumstance that lends a geopolitical nature or context to this next phase of political persecution against the leader of the "Armenia" alliance; to overlook the traces of geopolitical conflict here would require one to be at least blind. However, this is a separate, more comprehensive topic.

Another point is that three former presidents of Artsakh are currently in a prison in Baku, while Robert Kocharyan, who led to the defeat against the Azerbaijani army and is the first president of Artsakh, is incarcerated in Yerevan.

For more details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.