YEREVAN. – The case on political events cannot be considered without mentioning the political components. Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan stated this at Tuesday’s trial of the criminal case against him and several other former senior officials, expressing his position on former Deputy Prime Minister—and defendant—Armen Gevorgyan's lawyer Erik Aleksanyan’s motion on the self-recusal of presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan.

To note, the judge did not allow Gevorgyan to make political assessments, and as a result, Gevorgyan did not speak at all in this court hearing.

Kocharyan stressed that the criminal case on the events of March 1, 2008 in Yerevan is connected with the elections and post-election processes, it is completely politicized, and it will not be possible to think that the political assessments and references can be bypassed in this case. "I ask you take this into account. There can be no cases of political events without political components," the second president concluded.

Kocharyan's lawyer Aram Vardevanyan, in turn, recalled Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's call to take revenge on the opposition and the fact that no one dared to call him to account in this regard.