Most of the society has reacted positively to the criminal prosecution against Robert Kocharyan. I will not hide: I was glad to hear this news too in purely emotional sense: a person haughtily and impudently depriving the only independent TV channel from broadcasting cannot be perceived positively by any normal journalist.
However, Kocharyan is being pursued not for that. In the streets and on the internet people tell me “He has plundered this country for ten years now, of course, he should be arrested”. However, Kocharyan is charged not with that. He is accused of “March 1”. But (for now, at least) the topic of the discussion is not that the second president had given the order to fire on unarmed demonstrators. He is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order. Here we should listen to lawyers who should tell whether to what extent the immunity envisaged by the Constitution for former presidents applies in this case. I suppose that lawyers who support Kocharyan will say that the prosecution is illegal, while those who are not fond of him will tell that the accusation stated by the Special Investigation Service is within the law. While we, the citizens, should probably stay away from purely emotional approaches. Robert Kocharyan was an Armenian citizen and has the right to express his opinion, like any of us, the presumption of innocence applies to him, he can hire our best advocates. It should be added that he has played a great role in the liberation of Artsakh, and has done both bad (very bad) and good deeds for Armenia. If a person is deceitful and vindictive, if he believes that it is stubbornness and arrogance that makes someone a real man, it does not mean that we must all show the same characteristics. You will say that what I am saying is non-real idealism, and I will certainly agree with that: in any case, humane treatment towards even a criminal is very important.
There are few idealists among politicians, especially state leaders if we leave people like Mandela or Havel aside. They reach their goals mainly through fraud. Sincereness is also a rare phenomenon among these people, and the main topic of their conversation is the “benevolence” that they have provided to the people. Have you ever heard the following confession from anyone?: “the power made me feel like in heaven”.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
