Upon his return from Paris, Robert Kocharyan had separate talks with coalition deputies in his office. The coalition deputies thought Kocharyan invited them to talk about his impressions from Paris and give them details about the negotiations. However the reason Kocharyan called the deputies is to express his anger about the announcements of the coalition that Hrant Khachatryan (NA Deputy, “Justice” faction) would make a good Ombudsman. There is a political decision to entrust this position to Armen Harutyunyan. Mr. Kocharyan is afraid that Harutyunyan will once again not be able to overcome the limit of 79 NA votes to be elected and the new Constitution doesn’t allow the same candidate to be nominated for the third time. The President assigned the coalition parties to start negotiating with NA factions and deputy groups in order to have a 100% guarantee that they will vote for A. Harutyunyan. According to our sources Robert Kocharyan asked the coalition deputies whether they thought about the consequences of electing Hrant Khachatryan as an Ombudsman prior to making such announcements. No one responded to this. Kocharyan went to Tsakhkadzor right after coming back from Paris. That’s where he met the coalition deputies. At the airport he contemptuously asked NA Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan “Is it true that you have started to support the opposition?”
