60 Thousand Citizens Demand the Release of Robert Kocharian: Avghan Vardanyan

The second President of Armenia's request for a change in his detention conditions has led to the formation of a committee, stated former member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and former parliament member Avghan Vardanyan during a meeting with journalists today.

Vardanyan recalled that some time ago approximately 100 figures from the public, political, cultural, and sports spheres issued a statement in support of Robert Kocharian. “They urged the authorities to rise above personal interests, to acknowledge the inaccuracies of their own biases regarding the ‘March 1’ case, and to put an end to the pressures on the judiciary. They also expressed hope that Kocharian’s release would signal public solidarity,” he noted.

He emphasized that keeping Robert Kocharian, who made a significant contribution to the establishment of the two Armenian states, in detention is an ignoble act that does not serve the interests of the state, but rather harms it and undermines the judicial system. “Ultimately, this fixation of the authorities does not lead to public solidarity and prevents focusing on real agendas and issues. It is also obvious that keeping Robert Kocharian in prison benefits neither any citizen nor the state. We must exit this situation; the simplest solution is to change the detention conditions of the second president. The authorities have not done this yet, forcing judges to issue illegal decisions,” Vardanyan said.

He mentioned that the second option remains: “To make the change in detention conditions a public political demand. In response to the current demands of 60 thousand citizens, an initiative group has been created, whose goal is the freedom of President Kocharian.”