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Armenian President Robert Kocharian’s term of office expired on April 9 of 2008. A month after the inauguration of the new President, Robert Kocharian gave an exclusive interview to Mediamax, in which he commented on the recent statements of the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian.

- Recently Levon Ter-Petrosian made a speech at his supporters’ congress and devoted most part of his speech to accusations addressed to you. What is your reaction?

- I should note that I was not going to give any interview in the nearest future; however I am forced to do that after the absurd statements voiced by Ter-Petrosian. And I had already started to forget about his existence.

By pouring mud on others, Levon Ter-Petrosian will not manage to clean himself. His self-justification manner causes feelings of disgust. He never had the courage to take the responsibility. In the most critical moments he was concerned only for himself. It happened after the arrest of the “Karabakh” committee [in 1988], it happened during the war and it happened in 1998. Same is happening now.

I will not go into details of the events’ chronology - the investigation is to restore the picture of Yerevan March 1-2 events minute by minute. I hope that the special commission, which the Council of Europe proposes to set up, will also get involved in that process. I think that all the materials will be publicized, and each citizen will be able to differentiate the truth from a lie.

- Levon Ter-Petrosian, media and political organizations supporting him present the picture of March 1-2 events in a way that, according to them, everything, including the mass unrest and use of force, was planned by the authorities beforehand. What will your comment be?

- Only the weak-headed, or a deeply immoral person may contends that authorities can deliberately plan use of arms.

One should try understand who those events were beneficial for? Any collisions of that kind with human losses are first of all a blow against the authorities, since the opinion, that authorities did not done everything possible to avoid loss of citizens, will always dominate. This is the reality, and this reality is also true for such situations in European countries. It is obvious that not a single authority will deliberately jeopardize itself. The use of force by authorities in such cases can only be a forced measure, which is to prevent grosser consequences. This is true especially for me, since I was the outgoing President then.

To understand the truth, one should just recall: who tried to sap the authorities during the whole pre-election campaign and especially after the election? Who described the authorities as a group of bandits and urged to dismantle the state system? Who was the one to announce his victory two weeks prior to the election? Who instigated the military men and the policemen to a breach of oath? Who blackmailed international organizations and observers for their on the whole positive assessment of the elections? Levon Ter-Petrosian and ANM [Armenian National Movement] hungered for blood, as a tool to continue the political struggle. By the way –others’ blood. Ter-Petrosian did everything to provoke unrest and make the police use force.

And the last thing – who has been up till now using the March 1 tragic events for their political goals, immorally exploiting the human losses? Let everyone answer these questions for themselves according to their conscience and make conclusions.

- Ter-Petrosian pays special attention to the circumstance, that on March 1-2 we was allegedly under house arrest. How can this be explained?

- Ter-Petrosian needs the house arrest version as the breath of life. It is impossible to justify his absence on March 1 at the square in front of the City Administration without that version. I assert that there was no house arrest. Moreover, Armenian legislation does not provide for such a legal order. He was clearly told that he could go wherever and whenever he wanted, but the participation of guarding officers in illegal rallies, which had grown into mass unrest, was impermissible. He could renounce the protection and join the people, who trusted him. By the way, a responsible man would do exactly that. Revolution cannot be made with state guards. Did he want to go there, and was forcedly returned? Let him name the person, who did that. Let him turn to the Prosecutor’s Office. Levon Ter-Petrosian’s personal guards are people faithful to him, ones, who work with him on his request. The Head of his guards is a person close to his family. Everyone knows that they are only nominally in the state guards’ list.

The topic of “house arrest” should become a subject of attention for both the Prosecutor’s Office and the above-mentioned commission. If anyone has committed malfeasance, let him be brought to responsibility for that.

The myth on house arrest is a justification of a coward, who escaped from responsibility. I am not the President anymore and I can allow myself using a freer vocabulary, calling things by their names.

- According to Ter-Petrosian, “authorities have things to hide”. This is why, he states, no one have been brought charges against so far in using arms against the police. Besides, the Ex-President mentions about certain talks he had with you through the mediation of foreign Ambassadors on March 1. What is point in reality?

- Why aren’t there any charges brought for using arms against the police? Because many important figures are still hiding from the investigation. Casting doubt on the fact of use of arms, when there are two killed and 41 injured policemen and soldiers, is just foolish. And I am only talking about 43 policemen, who had gunshot wounds or many missile injuries.

Ter-Petrosian detected certain contradictions in my speeches at news conferences, when I was talking about the fact that the policemen were not armed. The former President, seems to me, should have known the difference between the orders of bearing arms in the police and the police forces. The collisions started with the forces, the soldiers of which had only batons and shields. Both killed and the majority of the injured were exactly from the police forces. I am sure that Ter-Petrosian knows that, but deliberately misleads his supporters.

Ter-Petrosian contends that on March 1 he held talks with me through diplomats accredited in Armenia. The given fact is unknown to me. I held no talks on March 1 through diplomats and received no proposals through them. On my order, Head of the President’s Staff Armen Gevorgyan held two meetings late March 1: with representatives of international organizations and Ambassadors of EU states. The meetings were of informative nature and did not contain negotiation elements.

On the whole, to all appearances, Ter-Petrosian has complex relations with morality. I think that he needs all this lies to keep his supporters and to preserve the opportunity to manipulate them.