Criminal charges leveled against three retired top generals in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan have affected morale within the Armenian military, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan said on Monday.
“Of course that is affecting the mood in the armed forces,” Tonoyan told journalists. “But as I said, we are coping well and doing more than enough [for national security.]”
The charges stem from the violent breakup of opposition protests staged in the wake of the disputed February 2008 presidential election. Former President Robert Kocharian as well as Generals Mikael Harutiunian, Seyran Ohanian and Yuri Khachaturov stand accused of illegally using army units against the protesters. They all deny the accusations.
Ohanian, who was the chief of the army’s General Staff during the March 2008 violence, went farther at the weekend, accusing the Armenian authorities of “attempting to drive a wedge between the army and the people.” In a lengthy Facebook post, he again insisted that army units were not involved in vicious street clashes that left eight protesters and two policemen dead.
Ohanian also suggested that the alleged efforts to “discredit the high-ranking army command” may be designed to facilitate significant Armenian concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Maybe this is aimed at ‘preparing the peoples for peace,’” he said, using a phrase from a statement which international mediators issued after a recent meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers.
Ohanian was appointed as Armenia’s defense minister in April 2008. He held that post until October 2016. Tonoyan served as first deputy defense minister from 2010-2017.
Armenia - Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian (C), Chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff Yuri Khachaturov (L) and First Deputy Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan (R) at a meeting in the Ministry of Defense, Yerevan,06May,2014
The minister spoke to reporters at Yerevan’s Yerablur military cemetery where he and other senior officials led by President Armen Sarkissian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian laid flowers on Monday. The ceremony was part of official celebrations of Army Day, a public holiday in Armenia.
Kocharian, Harutiunian and Khachaturov were charged with an “overthrow of the constitutional order” shortly Pashinian swept to power in May on a wave of mass protests that brought down the country’s previous government. Pashinian, who was one of the main speakers during the 2008 protests, has repeatedly denied any political motives behind the charges.
One of the premier’s close associates, deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian, brushed aside Ohanian’s latest claims, saying that the Armenian armed forces cannot be associated with a few retired generals. “That’s an absurd statement,” Simonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
By contrast, the high-profile criminal case was criticized by Vitaly Balasanian, another retired general who is now the secretary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Security Council. “This accusation of overthrowing the constitutional order is a bit ridiculous,” Balasanian told reporters after attending the wreath laying ceremony at Yerablur.
“Can you imagine Nikol Pashinian overthrowing the constitutional order to stay on as prime minister?” he said. “Only a force that’s not in government could overthrow the constitutional order. Why would people in power overthrow the constitutional order?”