Armenian Parliament’s Speaker Alen Simonyan has filed a lawsuit against the country’s former President Rober Kocharyan for slander.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday while Simonyan was in a visit in Moscow, stems from the “offensive statement” made during a presser in January. Simonyan is seeking around $5,500 in compensation, half of which is intended to be compensation for the insult, and half intended to cover court expenses. He also demands that Kocharyan publicly apologizes to him.
On January 29, Kocharyan slammed the government for what he described as “weakening” the army. ‘We note with regret that over the past approximately eight years, everything possible has been done to weaken, fragment, and destroy our region’s most combat-ready and victorious army’, Kocharyan said in his Army Day message. His remarks were in response to Simonyan’s criticism of the army under Kocharnyan’s tenure. Shortly after Kocharnyan’s remarks, Simonyan published a video address on social media, in which he gave a long list of reasons why the condition of the army was poor under the former government’s tenure, including the poor food quality, mistreatment of conscripts, widespread corruption – allegations he said were based on his observations during his mandatory military service. Simonyan argued that Kocharyan and his successor Serz Sargshan had “destroyed” the army.
Kocharyan responded with in strong-worded remarks. ‘If Alen Simonyan is supposed to assess the army’s combat readiness, then where have we come? What does he understand about the army? I even doubt he served properly, because such slimy people cannot have served properly,” the former president said. Kocaryan also claimed the army was so strong during his presidency that Azerbaijan “would never dare to attack”.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *