Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan Banned from Leaving the Country
Earlier, Samvel Karapetyan and Gagik Tsarukyan were also banned from leaving the country in connection with criminal cases initiated against them.
Former President, leader of the "Armenia" alliance, Robert Kocharyan, has been banned from leaving the country. The reason for this decision is unknown.
Kocharyan's office head, Bagrat Mikoyan, stated that he considers it "illegal and unfounded". According to him, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has turned the country into a "concentration camp".
On June 14, Kocharyan wrote on Facebook that he was flying out of the country for a three-day visit, which, according to him, was personal and had been planned long ago, but was postponed due to a "dense pre-election schedule". He noted that he had made trips before, but this time he decided to announce it in advance due to recent "fakes spread by the authorities regarding trips by opposition representatives".
Pashinyan recently stated that the people demand to "bring the three-headed mafia to its knees, destroy it, and this must inevitably happen." By "three-headed mafia," as the Armenian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty explains, he means his opponents — Robert Kocharyan, Samvel Karapetyan ("Strong Armenia"), and Gagik Tsarukyan ("Prosperous Armenia"). Karapetyan and Tsarukyan were earlier banned from leaving the country in connection with criminal cases initiated against them.
In the parliamentary elections held on June 7, Kocharyan's bloc received 9.9 percent of the votes.
Robert Kocharyan, a native of Stepanakert, was the first president of Nagorno-Karabakh (1994–1997) and president of Armenia from 1998 to 2008. He also served as prime minister in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
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