YEREVAN. – Sources close to second President Robert Kocharyan inform that he on Thursday will come to Armenia not solely for the questioning in connection with the case into the tragedy that had occurred in capital city Yerevan on March 1, 2008, but, also, he will attempt to be “cleansed’ from the March 1 “burden,” and that this is why he wished for the questioning to be recorded on video, according to Hraparak (Square) newspaper.  

“Moreover, according to some sources, he is coming to Armenia with a long-term objective: to enter politics (…).

“And what if the questioning ‘takes him’ to completely ‘somewhere else’—with the prospect of [becoming] a suspect, a defendant [in the March 1 case]? ‘Rule it out; he has a guaranteed immunity (…),’ they [the sources close to Kocharyan] told us.

‘“By the way, don’t rule out that Kocharyan, for his part, also present ‘circumstances,’ as a result of which it will be required to [also] question both the First President [Levon Ter-Petrosyan] and the [incumbent] Prime Minister [Nikol Pashinyan], who, by the way, don’t have immunity (…),’ they told us.

“And what if the questioning is not video recorded and is not made public? ‘Forms of publicizing [it] will be found,’ [they said,]” Hraparak wrote.

On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one has yet been brought to account for these deaths.