Armenian PM calls ex-president Kocharyan "bribe-taker" Video

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has publicly labelled former President Robert Kocharyan a “bribe-taker” in a video message posted on Facebook.

Pashinyan criticised what he described as excessive politeness in public discourse and said that such restraint leads to “mistakes,” Caliber.Az reports.

“We never officially stated that Robert Kocharyan is a bribe-taker, even though it’s confirmed by a court decision,” he said.

“He asked the court to drop the bribery case due to the statute of limitations. That’s effectively an admission of guilt.”

Pashinyan added that Armenia’s judicial system now officially records Kocharyan, who served as the country’s second president, as a bribe-taker.

“Let them take it to court,” he said defiantly. “From now on, whenever I mention Robert Kocharyan, I will say: ‘bribe-taker Robert Kocharyan’.”

By Aghakazim Guliyev