Rule of Law party ‘rules out’ cooperation with pro-Kocharyan team

The Rule of Law party strongly opposes any cooperation with Robert Kocharyan or the political forces backing the former president, their leader said on Saturday.

Speaking at a news conference, Artur Baghdasaryan reiterated instead their support to the country’s new leadership and the ideas underlying the “Velvet Revolution”.

“We have assisted and will continue assisting in the current reforms. Rule of Law excludes the possibility of a political cooperation with Robert Kocharyan and the political forces siding with him, not identifying [the second president] with the current government of Armenia,” he said.

Kocharyan is formally accused of overthrowing the constitutional order in the period of the March 1-2, 2008 post-electoral unrest (which left 10 people killed in Yerevan). He was arrested and taken into custody on July 28 but was released on plea bargain about a fortnight later. The Court of Appeals has replaced the measure of restraint against the ex-president with a “written undertaking not to leave the country”.

Baghdasaryan, who headed the National Security Council under third President Serzh Sargsyan, cited political inexperience as the major challenge of the current government. “Among the challenges facing the new government are the lack of experience and absence of a socio-economic development program, as well as the shortage of professionals capable of reacting to the foreign policy challenges. I say this to convey my positive (rather than negative) message to the authorities to enable them to make the necessary conclusions as to the extremely grave situation in the country,” he added.