After his predecessor
Levon Ter-Petrosyan was ousted as President, Kocharyan was elected Armenia's second President on 30 March 1998, defeating his main rival,
Karen Demirchyan (who was a former leader of Soviet Armenia), in an early presidential election marred by irregularities and violations by both sides as reported by international electoral observers. There were also complaints that Kocharyan was not eligible to run under the Armenian constitution, which required candidates to be an Armenian citizen and have resided in Armenia for ten years. Before he became prime minister, Kocharyan resided in and was considered a citizen of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Kocharyan was supported by Vazgen Sargsyan's
Republican Party, as well as the banned
Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which he relegalized early in his presidency. On 27 October 1999, Vazgen Sargsyan and Karen Demirchyan were killed along with six other government officials by five gunmen in an episode known as the
1999 Armenian parliament shooting. The attackers then took around fifty people hostage in the parliament building. Kocharyan himself negotiated with the terrorists to release the hostages and surrender to police. Kocharyan and his ally Serzh Sargsyan, who was minister of national security at the time of the shooting, have been suspected of covering up or even masterminding the attack in order to consolidate political power by their political opponents and some relatives and supporters of the assassinated officials. Kocharyan's predecessor Levon Ter-Petrosyan repeatedly accused him and Serzh Sargsyan of being complicit in the 1999 shooting in his campaign speeches before the
2008 presidential election. The bodyguard, Aghamal Harutiunyan, received a one-year suspended jail term for the killing.
2003 election The 2003 Armenian Presidential election was held on 19 February and 5 March 2003. No candidate received a majority in the first round of the election with the
incumbent President Kocharyan winning slightly under 50% of the vote. Therefore, a second round was held and Kocharyan defeated
Stepan Demirchyan (son of Karen Demirchyan) with official results showed him winning just over 67% of the vote. In both rounds, electoral observers from the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe reported significant amounts of
electoral fraud by Demirchyan's supporters and numerous supporters of Demirchyan were arrested before the second round took place. Demirchyan described the election as having been rigged and called on his supporters to rally against the results. Tens of thousands of Armenians protested in the days after the election against the results and called on President Kocharyan to step down. On 14 April 2004 Armenian poet
Silva Kaputikyan wrote an open letter
Kocharyan Must Go, where she protested Kocharyan's harsh methods towards the demonstrators on 12–13 April 2004. She also turned back
Mesrop Mashtots Medal awarded by Kocharyan some years ago.
2008 election A presidential election was held in Armenia on 19 February 2008. The incumbent President Kocharyan, who was ineligible for a third consecutive term, backed the candidacy of
Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. Following the election result, protests organized by supporters of unsuccessful candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan began in Yerevan's Freedom Square and accompanied by mass disorders. The opposition accused the government of rigging the election in Sargsyan's favor. On 1 March, the demonstrators were dispersed by police and military forces. Ten people (eight protestors and two policemen) were killed during clashes between police and protestors, and President Kocharyan declared a 20-day state of emergency. This was followed by mass arrests and purges of prominent members of the opposition, as well as a de facto ban on any further anti-government protests.
Foreign policy and Azerbaijani President
Heydar Aliyev, November 2001 , September 2006 As President, Kocharyan continued to negotiate a peaceful resolution with Azerbaijani Presidents
Heydar Aliyev and
Ilham Aliyev on the status of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Kocharyan was generally in favor of achieving a "package deal" settlement of the conflict, whereby all issues, including the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh would be resolved in one agreement, rather than a "phased" settlement whereby Armenian forces would withdraw from the
territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh in exchange for security guarantees while Karabakh's status would be left for future negotiations. In October 1999, Kocharyan became the first
President of Armenia to visit
Azerbaijan, holding talks with Heydar Aliyev at the border of the two countries. Kocharyan and Heydar Aliyev reportedly came particularly close to an agreement during US-mediated negotiations at
Key West in April 2001. In his memoirs, Kocharyan later claimed that Aliyev stood ready in his discussions to recognize Karabakh as a part of Armenia. Talks between Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev, Heydar Aliyev's son and successor, were held in September 2004 in
Astana,
Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit. Reportedly, one of the suggestions put forward was the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the Azeri territories adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, and holding
referendums (plebiscites) in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan proper regarding the future status of the region. On 10–11 February 2006, Kocharyan and Aliyev met in
Rambouillet,
France to discuss the fundamental principles of a settlement to the conflict, including the withdrawal of troops, formation of international peacekeeping troops, and the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. During the weeks and days before the talks in France,
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen expressed cautious optimism that some form of an agreement was possible. French President
Jacques Chirac met with both leaders separately and expressed hope that the talks would be fruitful. Contrary to the initial optimism, the Rambouillet talks did not produce any agreement, with key issues such as the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and whether Armenian troops would withdraw from
Kalbajar still being contentious. The next session of the talks was held in March 2006 in Washington, D.C. Later in 2006 there was a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in Minsk on 28 November and ministerial meetings were held in Moscow. "These talks did not initiate any progress, but I hope that the time for a solution will come" said
Peter Semneby, EU envoy for the South Caucasus. In September 2006, in his congratulatory message on the occasion of 15th anniversary of
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Kocharyan said "The Karabakhi people made their historic choice, defended their national interests in the war that was forced upon them. Today, they are building a free and independent state." The accompanying message said that the duty of the Republic of Armenia and all Armenians is to contribute to the strengthening and development of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as to the international recognition of the republic's independence. == Post-presidency ==