Ex-Armenian President Kocharyan Announces Parliamentary Elections Bid

After coming to power in 2008, Pashinyan restarted the criminal cases linked to the March 2008 events, with Kocharyan facing a number of charges for attempts of ‘overthrowing the constitutional order’. The Constitutional Court of Armenia, however, dropped the charges against the former president and deemed them ‘unconstitutional’.

A day before Kocharyan’s announcement, former Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan pledged to “unite people and advance the country.”

Tatoyan, who served as Armenia’s Human Rights Defender from 2016 until early 2022, framed his decision as a response to what he described as the erosion of state institutions and the concentration of power in the hands of a single political force. “Legal work alone is no longer sufficient to bring meaningful change,” he said, emphasizing that politics should serve as a tool for unity and national progress.

Initially appointed by the previous Republican-led parliament, he remained in office through the 2018 Velvet Revolution and the rise of Pashinyan’s government. Over time, however, his positions grew increasingly critical of the new authorities.

In his new political message, Tatoyan portrayed his move as a rejection of ‘old political rules’. He called for rebuilding trust in public institutions, promoting justice as a unifying national value, and creating a ‘country of opportunity’ where advancement depends on merit rather than patronage or party ties.

“We are being offered only two paths and told everything has long been decided, while indifference and hostility are being sown,” he said. “We must unite not out of despair, but for hope. We can do this, and therefore we must do it.”