Kocharyan not aware of Decree N 0038? Facts claim the opposite

On December 4, one of the lawyers of ex-president Robert Kocharyan noted that Kocharyan claims that he was not aware of the secret decree N 0038.

The decree signed in 2008 by then Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan  includes the following: “After the RA presidential election results were recognized as open and transparent by the international community, some political forces do not accept them, and try to destabilized the situation with illegal actions. Since 18:00 February 23, the whole military personnel shall be confined to barracks until a special command is received.  Officers’ groups shall be created in different subdivisions of the Central Apparatus of the RA Ministry of Defense, which should be armed with state-issued weapons.”   

According to the information provided by the RA Special Investigation Service (SIS), it was instructed to replenish these units with “more trained, psychologically stable servants”.

However, in Kocharyan’s lawyer Orbelyan’s words, Kocharyan was not aware of the text of this decree. “He is not aware of the secret decree, he is not familiar with the text of the secret decree.” Orbelian said. He added that, as a rule, Kocharyan did not read the decrees of ministers and even law enforcement authorities simply because he did not have enough time.

It results that the RA President who was Commander-in-Chief of the RA Armed Forces, did not know that the AF personnel had been instructed to be confined to barracks and create subdivisions that would be deployed in Yerevan on March 1.

The decree was signed by Harutyunyan but it is impossible that the president did not know the details of that decree. Harutyunyan also mentioned it in detail.

Harutyunyan was summoned for interrogation in 2008 within the framework of the fact-finding group on March 1 case. Some parts of this video interview were included in Tigran Paskevichian’s 2011 film “Armenia’s Lost Spring”.

The video shows that Andranik Kocharyan, a member of the fact-finding group asks Harutyunyan several times about the involvement of the RA Armed Forces on March 1. Harutyunyan mainly gives evasive answers but actually admits that the involvement of the Armed Forces on March 1 was based on the instruction of the president.

Asked by Andranik Kocharyan whether there was a martial law in Yerevan on March 1, Harutyunyan replied: “No, but I want to say something. Why are you asking that question to me? I want to understand why you are asking this question tome. I was Minister of Defense, and I will not discuss this topic as Supreme Commander-in-Chief, whether the commander-in-chief had the right or not. Why do you ask me this question? ”

In a conversation with us, Andranik Kocharyan said that during the interrogation Harutyunyan obviously mentions an addressee, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. He added that such decrees have always been reported to the president. And though Kocharyan can legally insist that he was not familiar with the text, Harutyunyan’s words prove the opposite.

In fact, at the Criminal Court of Appeal, Kocharyan is trying to put the blame on the then Minister of Defense Harutyunyan, who was the one who signed the order. It should be reminded that Harutyunyan has been wanted by the RA law enforcement authorities since July.

Hovhannes Nazaretyan