“We have legitimacy,” he said. “If I said I will bring them to their knees, then I will bring them in the de jure sense of the word.”
Pashinian made the statement in the Armenian parliament as opposition lawmakers from Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance accused him of illegally ordering their leader’s arrest.
“Speaking of orders, I didn’t issue the order here. I issued the order at Republic Square on June 5,” Pashinian said, referring to his speech during his party’s last campaign rally for the June 7 parliamentary elections.
In that speech, he declared that “right after the elections” Kocharian will be arrested again for his role in a 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. He also pledged to strip the leaders of the two other major opposition contenders, businessmen Samvel Karapetian and Gagik Tsarukian, of their key assets in Armenia. Tsarukian was arrested on July 6, while Karapetian remains under house arrest. Kocharian is now facing criminal charges unrelated to the events of 2008.
“Yes, they must sit in jail … They must have no money to hand out vote bribes,” Pashinian said on Tuesday, adding that he is simply executing “the will of the people of Armenia.”
Opposition lawmakers countered that he cannot speak for the people because even according to the official election results, rejected by them as fraudulent, the ruling Civil Contract party garnered just under half of the vote. Anna Grigorian, Hayastan’s parliamentary leader, again questioned his legitimacy.
“Would a person who won an election and became the head of the country be so vengeful towards all opposition forces?” said Grigorian.
Another Hayastan lawmaker, Artur Khachatrian, claimed that Pashinian’s regular references to “the people” are aimed at covering up his abuses of power. Khachatrian compared them with Nazi German propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels’s rhetoric.
Pashinian publicly pledged to “take out” Kocharian, Karapetian and Tsarukian during the election campaign. He said the top opposition leaders will go to jail if he wins reelection. His critics portrayed those statements as further proof that law-enforcement agencies act on Pashinian’s orders in breach of Armenian laws mandating their independence.
Hundreds of opposition members and supporters have been arrested on mostly vote-buying charges in the last several months. Dozens of them remain in jail.