Police Attempted to 'Lay Asphalt' on Kocharyan's Son

According to Hraparak.am, there was an attempt to carry out an operation to 'lay asphalt' on Sedrak Kocharyan, the elder son of Robert Kocharyan, and his friend, TV5 owner Armen Tavadyan. A group of masked individuals in civilian clothing and operating vehicles pulled over Tavadyan's Lexus, with Tavadyan himself at the wheel and Sedrak Kocharyan beside him, attempting to execute an action against them. However, Kocharyan and his friend managed to evade the masked individuals and escape.

Afterward, they contacted the police to clarify whether those masked individuals were their employees and why they had stopped their vehicle. The police indicated that it was a misunderstanding and advised them not to raise unnecessary noise and to close the matter. We were informed that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was unaware of the incident, and that one of his parliamentary colleagues had decided to direct the police towards Kocharyan's associates.

Yesterday, during a press conference, we asked Police Chief Valery Osipyan whether such an operation had occurred regarding Sedrak Kocharyan and Armen Tavadyan. Osipyan did not deny it, stating, 'It may have happened, but that doesn’t change anything, and the police are not restricted by who it is, whether it be Sedrak Kocharyan or someone else.'

It is noteworthy that such 'laying asphalt' operations seem to have been absent recently, perhaps because those in black have already been 'identified' and removed. It raises the question of what principle the police are following: must there be a directive from the Prime Minister for them to decide to 'lay asphalt' on a certain individual? 'The police have specific functional responsibilities regarding the process of laying asphalt, and it's not mandatory for there to be a directive from the Prime Minister. The process continues; you might simply be uninformed. I also assure you that since we tightened our approach and stopped being lenient towards criminals and violators, there are people who have realized this, and lawfulness has increased in Armenia,' said Mr. Osipyan.