The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) confirmed at the weekend that its members were among more than 40 parliamentarians who appealed for former President Robert Kocharian’s release from custody.
The party represented in Armenia’s new government said their move was in tune with its official reaction to Kocharian’s prosecution on charges stemming from the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.
Dashnaktsutyun was quick to express serious concern at a Yerevan court’s decision late last month to allow the ex-president’s pre-trial arrest. It said the coup charges levelled against him “can be interpreted as political persecution.”
The party reiterated those concerns in another statement issued on Saturday. It said that the criminal investigation into the deadly events of March 1-2, 2008 must target “all parties involved in those events, not just one of them.” Investigators’ decision to prosecute Kocharian and two retired army generals “leaves the impression of selective justice and biased investigation,” it said.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS), which is conducting the probe, has denied any political motives behind Kocharian’s arrest welcomed by allies and other supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Last week, at least 41 members of Armenia’s 105-seat parliament signed a joint petition urging law-enforcement and judicial authorities to free Kocharian. They guaranteed that he will not flee prosecution if set free.
The Dashnaktsutyun statement said the party’s leadership in Armenia “sees no impropriety” in the fact that some Dashnaktsutyun deputies also signed the petition. “This approach fits the logic of our [July 27] statement,” it said without naming those parliamentarians.
Dashnaktsutyun, which is particularly influential in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora, was allied to Kocharian throughout his 1998-2008 rule. It also struck a power-sharing deal with Serzh Sarkisian when the latter took over as president in April 2008.
Dashnaktsutyun received two ministerial posts in Pashinian’s government formed in May following mass protests that forced Sarkisian into resignation.