Press: behind-the-scenes wars in the Constitutional Court

VERELQ presents the most notable publications of the Armenian press.

“time” the newspaper writes. “The composition of the future government is becoming more and more certain. It is known who will occupy the position of the prime minister, the first deputy prime minister, and now also the deputy prime minister. According to “Zhamanak”, that position will be occupied by the head of the presidential office Armen Gevorgyan: Let’s note that Gevorgyan has already held the post of Deputy Prime Minister twice, the first time when Serzh Sargsyan had just assumed the position of president and once again in 2014. Hovik Abrahamyan in the government. It remains to be determined who will be the second deputy prime minister, and it largely depends on whether the “Tsarukyan” alliance will form a new government.”

“Armenian Times” the newspaper writes. “Gagik Harutyunyan After being elected as the President of the Honorable Judicial Council, interesting behind-the-scenes developments are taking place regarding the election/appointment of the future President of the Constitutional Court. To remind, Hrayr Tovmasyan, the former chairman of the NA state-legal commission, who was recently elected a member of the Constitutional Court by the NA, is running for the position of the president of the Constitutional Court.

According to the information that has reached us, Hrayr Tovmasyan not only wants to be appointed the president of the CC, but also wants to perpetuate himself in that position in the last month of the transition to the parliamentary system, when the legal regulations of the Convention adopted in 2005 are still valid. The point is that Article 166, subparagraph 2 of the Constitution adopted in 2015 states that: “The Constitutional Court elects the President and Vice-President of the Constitutional Court from among its members for a period of six years, without the right to be re-elected.” Until then, the current Constitution stipulated that the President of the CC holds office for life. By the way, in the Constitutional Court, this issue is already behind the scenes wars are going on. The judges of the CC are very dissatisfied with the ambitions of Hrayr Tovmasyan.”

The same newspaper writes: “On the issue of calling a citizen a bosha by RA Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, a preliminary study is still being conducted in the ethics commission. Siranush Sahakyan, chairman of the ethics commission for high-ranking officials, said this in a conversation with “Haykakan Zhamanak” journalist Tirayr Muradyan.

Minister of Defense Vigen Sargsyan On January 13, he posted on his Facebook page, offering people to collect money for the operation of the wounded soldier Albert Dallakyan. The minister stated that it is not possible to compensate Dallakyan for operating abroad in accordance with the law. Facebook user Petros Sargsyan left a comment under the minister’s post, qualifying the phenomenon of initiating fundraising. “The 1000 drams got away, is it a form of pure laziness?” Vigen Sargsyan gave an insulting answer to the user. “Boshan are you?” Petros Sargsyan, to whom Vigen Sargsyan made insulting remarks, applied to the Ethics Commission weeks ago. The Ethics Commission also “put to rest” the application submitted by journalist Siranuysh Papyan against police chief Vladimir Gasparyan in 2016. This application is also at the stage of preliminary studies.”

“Fact” the daily writes. “Although he is the head of the parliamentary faction of the National Assembly RPA Vahram Baghdasaryan announced that the US ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills the view expressed the other day that the existing corruption in Armenia hinders economic growth, threatens the protection of human rights, democracy and even national security, it is not necessary to pay attention, because it is not the official view of the USA, it once again shocked the public. He also said that the official of any other country talking about corruption should first of all talk about the corruption of his own country and then someone else. Agree that it was not possible to expect a more witty statement and it remains to ask Vahram Baghdasaryan that if the country’s ambassador does not voice the official point of view of the given country, then whose opinion does he voice? And secondly, which European country’s corruption risks shake the state as much as Armenia’s, or which country has opened its doors to various miners and said: come, rob the mine and leave the garbage as a gift to our people.

President of “International Center for Human Development”. Tevan Poghosyan in my opinion, all the mechanisms fighting corruption in developed countries work normally and if we can use such mechanisms in our country and see what kind of punishment this or that official received and how he suffered it, nobody will be able to tell Armenia that the main obstacle to the country’s economic development is corruption.

“The main emphasis of the US ambassador’s speech was that we should have an independent judicial system and a functioning law enforcement system. In addition, if the public learns about only one out of 1000 cases, for example, in the USA or in many democratic countries, at least 9 out of 10 cases are reported. Many, many countries have reached the level where, for example, they can call the country’s congressman, former or current president, prime minister for questioning, and if the guilt is confirmed, they will suffer their punishment. This is what distinguishes developed, democratic countries from those countries where even though everything is written on paper, it doesn’t work,” said T. Poghosyan.

According to the former deputy, the fight against corruption is not only spreading the message about the criminal case, but also its final examination – serving the punishment. And the day when we will be able to carry out such consistent work and inform the society about it, then they will no longer say about Armenia that corruption has reached such a level.

“As a landmark, we should take this road and go to the end, if we want no one to tell us that corruption is the main obstacle to the development of our country. Taxpayers as claimants have the right to know what happened to this or that official who was arrested for abuse of official position or embezzlement of public funds. It is the responsibility of the authorities to inform about this. There are cases where they are convicted, but they get out of prison very quickly or they serve the final punishment in a different way. In order to exclude all this, one must be consistent, which is the problem,” said T. Poghosyan.

According to the president of the International Center for Human Development, until society forces the authorities to work fully, no state institution will want to do it on its own. In addition, many and many functions are transferred to the executive power, and it should be taken into account that the National Assembly has the rights to exercise control over the executive. In other words, the legislature gets all the opportunities to call the executive to account.

“If before many problems were within the scope of the president’s powers and the National Assembly had no control mechanisms, now all the members of the government, from the prime minister to the deputies, can exercise control and demand clarifications. It is clear that it is better when these powers are in place, but the question arises as to how this will be implemented. And if the deputies cannot fully use all the mechanisms, that will be their weakness,” said T. Poghosyan”.

“Publication” the newspaper writes. “According to our information, in the upcoming session of the Supreme Spiritual Council, the person killed by the enemy’s bullet will also be discussed Grigor Yeghoyanthe issue of not allowing the funeral in Akhuryan’s church. To remind, the soldier’s body was first not allowed to be placed in the church, then he was buried not in a spiritual, but in a civil rite, because he was not baptized. According to our source, the priest of the church, who does not have much experience, tried to be careful, and since Grigor did not live in Armenia for many years (he was in Russia), to inform the leader of the Shirak Diocese. The latter said: what are you doing, he is a soldier, perform civil order. The spiritual council will discuss the general approach of how to act in such cases. The point is that in Father Zakaria’s book “Two hundred questions about baptism” it is written that a person can be baptized even after death, if he was not opposed to baptism during his life, but could not for some reason.

“People” the newspaper writes. “The government is trying to keep the Prime Minister secret as much as possible Karen Karapetyanthe full amount of money allocated from the state budget for visits to Switzerland and Kazakhstan. “Zhoghovurd” daily newspaper had the opportunity to reflect on these visits made by charter flights. And here, in response to our written request, the government informed us that for the expenses of the members of the RA delegation in Switzerland, representing the government staff, 6.7 million drams were allocated from the budget for official business trips abroad.

And 1.1 million drams were spent from the budget to participate in the session of the EAEU intergovernmental council in the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan. The government does not inform about the Prime Minister’s personal expenses, arguing that the expenses for ceremonial, accommodation, and transportation services, according to Clause 2 of Article 15 of the RA Law on “Purchases”, are included in the procurement plan containing state secrets and are not subject to publication. Meanwhile, “Zhoghovurd” daily was only interested in the amount of money spent for this purpose, which is not a state secret.

“168 hours” the newspaper writes. “My advice regarding the historical territorial claims of both sides is to accept the framework of the fundamental principles of the Madrid document,” former US ambassador, former American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, director of the International Center for Defense Studies in Tallinn told “168 Hours”. Matthew Bryzareferring to the recent bellicose statements made by the Azerbaijani authorities.

Let’s remind that on February 8, speaking at the congress of the ruling “Yeni Azerbaijan” party in Azerbaijan, the president of that country Ilham Aliyev announced that Yerevan, Zangezur and Sevan (Gyoche) are “our historical territories, and we must return these lands to the Azerbaijanis”. “That is our strategic goal, we should gradually approach that goal,” Ilham Aliyev stressed. His statement was followed by the statement of the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Zakir Hasanov, that a war could start in the NK conflict zone at any time. Speaking first about Aliyev’s historical territorial ambitions, Matthew Bryza tried explain what the president of Azerbaijan probably meant.

According to Matthew Brazya, these statements reflect the memory of the Yerevan gubernia (province) within the Russian Empire, which was formed in the middle of the 19th century. “My understanding is that while the majority of residents of Yerevan Governorate were Armenian, some regions, including Yerevan itself, had an Azeri majority, according to the results of the 1897 census of the Russian Empire. However, my advice regarding the historical territorial claims of both sides is to accept the framework of the fundamental principles of the Madrid document,” said Matthew Bryza.

Referring to Hasanov’s statement and the rumors about starting a war on the Azerbaijani side at this stage, the diplomat said that it is unlikely that the Azerbaijani side will initiate a new war, especially when the presidential elections are approaching.

“At the same time, I don’t know what Defense Minister Hasanov had in mind when he made the statement you quoted. It is true that military conflict can erupt at any moment along the contact line. At the same time, the resumption of full-scale war would require significant time and effort to move heavy weapons and large numbers of troops to the intended location. The threat of war, however, is a traditional tool of diplomacy, as US President Donald Trump reminds us in the context of South Korea,” said Matthew Bryza.”