Armenia’s authorities do not lift the martial law in the country to prevent from expressing no confidence toward them. Second President Robert Kocharyan stated this at Thursday’s press conference for Russian media, Sputnik-Armenia reports.

"I have not yet understood the essence of the accusation [against me]," Kocharyan added.

According to him, this also applies to his lawyers, who see no connection between the state of emergency he had declared in the country in March 2008—when he was still serving as President—and the charge against him on grounds of overthrow of the constitutional order.

Kocharyan noted that riots took place in the capital Yerevan in March 2008, during which a considerable number of police officers were injured. "This is a child’s babble compared to what is happening now. We have been living in a state of emergency and martial law for a year now. The [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war has stopped for four months already, whereas there is [still] a martial law in Armenia. And the whole point is not to allow the parliament to express no confidence toward the prime minister [Nikol Pashinyan],"Kocharyan said.

According to him, a reasonable question arises as to whether or not this is an overthrow of the constitutional order. As for the criminal case against him, Robert Kocharyan said that the authorities do not plan to end the respective trial, and they want to prolong it for 7-8 years.