Why the Three Are Different
Robert Kocharyan, Samvel Karapetyan and Gagik Tsarukyan are politically and personally distinct actors. Kocharyan was Armenia's second president (1998-2008), is currently leader of the Armenia Alliance, and his political vehicle has a specific Karabakh-era policy lineage. Karapetyan is a Russian-Armenian businessman whose Strong Armenia / Mer Tave bloc is built around personal-funding networks and has no direct prior-government history. Tsarukyan is a long-time Armenian businessman, founder of Bargavach Hayastan, with a populist political-and-philanthropic base and a different relationship with the Armenian state than either of the other two.
Fusing the three into a single 'three-headed war party' requires erasing those distinctions. The fusion is rhetorically efficient because all three are political opponents of Civil Contract, but it is doctrinally false: there is no formal alliance among the three, no joint policy platform, no shared electoral list. Voters who supported Kocharyan's bloc did not necessarily support Tsarukyan's, and vice versa. The framing tells voters that the distinction is illusory.
What the Framing Sets Up Procedurally
Pashinyan's 22:50 UTC 'they will sit' quote -- 'Robert Kocharyan will sit, Samvel Karapetyan will sit, Gagik Tsarukyan will sit' -- explicitly groups the three as a single prosecutorial target. The three-headed war party framing is the rhetorical infrastructure that makes the grouping look natural. If the post-vote prosecutorial vehicle moves to charge Karapetyan with the closing-week vote-buying allegations, charge Kocharyan with the March 1 vehicle, and charge Tsarukyan with whatever vehicle is reserved for him, the public can be told these are not three separate prosecutions; they are one prosecution of one enemy.
The post-vote political environment will be shaped by whether this framing is sustained by the judicial system, contested by the opposition, and registered by international observer missions. The OSCE/ODIHR preliminary statement and the EP Loiseau mission's report will both be read against the three-headed framing. If the international assessment treats the three opposition leaders as separate political subjects deserving separate procedural treatment, the framing weakens. If the international assessment treats the Armenian government's prosecution of all three as a consolidated 'rule of law' question, the framing strengthens. OWL is documenting Pashinyan's rhetorical move because it is the under-noticed pre-condition of the procedural week ahead.
Sources: Azatutyun.am (Pashinyan press conference) · Armtimes.com (22:50 "they will sit" quote) · OWL live blog