Former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian on Tuesday angrily denied coup charges brought against him as part of a criminal investigation into the 2008 post-election unrest in Armenia.
Ohanian also deplored the same accusations of “overthrow of the constitutional order” that have been leveled against two other retired army generals, Mikael Harutiunian and Yuri Khachaturov, as well as former President Robert Kocharian.
Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) claims that the four men illegally used the armed forces against opposition supporters who demonstrated in Yerevan against alleged electoral fraud. It says Kocharian ordered troops into the Armenian capital before declaring a state of emergency late on March 1, 2008 amid deadly clashes between security forces and opposition protesters. Eight protesters and two police servicemen died in what was the worst street violence in the country’s history.
Harutiunian, who now lives in Russia, served as defense minister while Ohanian was the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff at the time. The latter replaced Harutiunian as defense minister in April 2008.
Ohanian rejected the accusations as “baseless.” “Justice cannot be administered on order or under the influence of the street,” he wrote on Facebook.
The former minister also posted audio of this summer’s secretly recorded phone conversations between the SIS chief, Sasun Khachatrian, and Artur Vanetsian, the National Security Service (NSS) director. He said it shows that the ongoing investigation is not objective and fair.
In that audio, Vanetsian can be heard saying that he told a Yerevan judge to sanction Kocharian’s arrest in July. The NSS chief claims that it was doctored and that he never put pressure on the judge.
Ohanian also said that on December 20 law-enforcement authorities “illegally” restricted his freedom of movement without any explanation. He did not specify whether they prevented him from leaving the country.
“Do those trampling the constitution under foot have a right to administer justice against the colonel-generals, the [former] president and others who have made considerable contributions to the security of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)?” said Ohanian.
The Karabakh-born general challenged Armenia’s former government after being sacked as defense minister in October 2016. He teamed up with two opposition politicians, Vartan Oskanian and Raffi Hovannisian, to run in parliamentary elections held in April 2017. Their ORO bloc failed to win any seats in Armenia’s parliament.
Unlike Kocharian, Ohanian and Khachaturov have not been placed under pre-trial arrest.
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