Kocharian Speaks About March 1 Events

March 1 has become mythologized over the years. Today, those divisions are very deep. This was stated by the second President of Armenia and candidate for Prime Minister from the 'Hayastan' bloc, Robert Kocharian, in an interview with Nouvelles d’Arménie.

“2008 was the last year of my presidency. Yes, it was a demonstration. The reason was that the losing side in the elections, which garnered 21 percent of the vote, declared that it had won. Everything started from there, and that is a completely different story. During my presidency, that was the only incident of confrontation. I was the president whose term was ending, and I was supposed to leave office a month later. And I have never retained any office after leaving power. That is the real story.

“Today, in hindsight, I believe that if March 1 had succeeded through those same forces, we would have lost Artsakh. The same people, the same goal. Nikol Pashinyan was one of the main actors in that process. Levon Ter-Petrosyan personally did not participate in the confrontations. He saw what was happening but did not go there that night.

“March 1 has been mythologized over the years. The entire process has been mythologized. Even at that time, when I was no longer in office, an attempt was made through propaganda methods to connect all the responsibility for those events to me,” he said.

When asked what makes him think that a majority of Armenians would vote for him, Kocharian noted, “Because what they have achieved (the current authorities) is, in my opinion, a disaster.”