Alliance to back Armenia's second president 'lacks political component'

The alliance formed around Robert Kocharyan seems to be devoid of any political component, with only a couple of individuals having joined the initiative to create an opposition party led by the former president, says Andranik Kocharyan, the head of the Armenian National Assembly's Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.

At a parliament briefing on Monday, the politician noted that most of people centered around the idea are ''employees of media services'' not having any political affiliation.

''The opposition today is represented in the National Assembly – [in the form of the] Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia [parties]. which is practically in the outcomes of the [December 10 snap] election,'' Kocharyan said, adding that he does not presently see any extraparliamentary political force or alliance potentially promising to be a powerful opposition.

The senior parliamentarian agreed that many records pertaining the March 1, 2008 criminal case (in which Kocharyan faces criminal charges over breaching the country's constitutional order during the post-electoral unrest) were fabricated ''in collaboration with the national security agencies''.

''The Ministry of Interior planned the morning operations of March 1  based on national security intelligence reports. That's about the possession of weaponry and armament by the demonstrators, a fact that they later tried to keep away from the fact-finding group when we wanted to get familiarized with those documents. Perhaps materials of the kind were destroyed too.''

Kocharyan, who himself was a member of the fact-finding group, said he hopes that the prosecution will help to finally reveal that an unlawful decision led to the deadly turmoil which claimed 10 people's lives.  ''If you notice the defense team puts the emphasis upon the fact that there isn't virtually any right to indict Robert Kocharyan or anyone else unless any of those 10 killings has been resolved,'' he said, promising real guarantees for substantial evidence proving the former authorities' complicity.