I read the part of the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan’s book that was about March 1st, 2008. The fact that he does not accept his own fault in some of this and blames everything on Levon Ter-Petrossian is, of course, not good. The casualties are on Robert Kocharyan’s conscience first; as the working President, he should have been able to find any political resolution. But that is a political and moral evaluation. The legal formulation has to be given to the court. Since I am not a lawyer, I honestly do not know how Kocharyan as President was attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. I am also confused as to why law enforcement is focused solely on the events of March 1st, and is not also trying to find out how the second President’s family became wealthy.
I, of course, may be wrong. Once again, the answers to these questions need to be given by the court. But a question arises: are our lawyers truly independent and unconstrained? For example, the court accepted the decision to lengthen Kocharyan’s detainment. Taking into consideration the entire social and political subcontext, the question arises of whether this decision was made because Kocharyan might escape or influence the investigation, or because people who hate Kocharyan can hold protests, close off major highways, and they might write on Facebook that those judges are “Turks” and “traitors” (I am choosing the nicest words). And they might also tell the people above to “get their act together.”
I believe that judges should not only be independent from the government, but also from the opinions of society. They should not be afraid of being condemned and shamed. Otherwise, we should just get rid of the courts and judge all “untrustworthy elements” on Republic Square, using the majority’s opinion to make a decision. Such problems exist not only in Armenia, of course. In the United States, for example, judges are elected. And that has two sides, in my opinion. The positive side is that American judges are independent from the working government, but the negative side is that they might make decisions to please the majority. As far as how to find the best way to avoid all types of pressure, that is a serious issue which professionals need to decide upon.\
Now, the majority of Armenian citizens want Kocharyan to be imprisoned. I must confess that I do too. But unlike the majority, I want him to be imprisoned as a result of a flawless investigation and with inarguable accusations as the basis. I do not need to be emotionally satisfied.
Aram Abrahamyan
