On May 29, on the day of the regular session of answering the questions of the members of the government in the National Assembly, the Speaker of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan found himself in an uncomfortable situation. Before the session, journalists asked Mirzoyan whether it was a violation of the law that the prime minister was not present at the question-and-answer session with the government that day [1]. The latter first insisted that it was not a violation of the law and urged the journalists to read the law. “If the member of the government, including the prime minister, is not in the country, then naturally he cannot be here,” said the Speaker of the National Assembly. However, journalists persistently began to remind Mirzoyan that on such a day in 2017, when Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan was not present at the NA-Government question-and-answer session due to his absence from the country, at that time, opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan interpreted Article 80 of the Constitution in a completely different way, claiming that “if anyone is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, on this day, at this time, he cannot be found anywhere else on earth, except here” [2].
In order to avoid commenting on the statement made by Nikol Pashinyan in the past, the Speaker of the National Assembly had to look for explanations to get out of the awkward situation. “Anywhere in the world… It’s a very absurd interpretation of the law. I don’t remember the specific episode and the context. If a person is not in the country, let’s say he has gone on a business trip or is on vacation, how can he come to this hall on Wednesday,” Mirzoyan countered. However, the journalists did not give way and reminded again that it was Pashinyan who claimed so. “Dear people, I don’t remember. Let’s open it and take a look, because maybe Mr. Pashinyan meant that he was in the country, but he did not come to the National Assembly,” the speaker said and hurried to leave.
The presented situation is an occasion for political evaluations and comments. Many citizens and politicians began to accuse the current leaders of making irresponsible statements, showing lack of principles, and being guided by double standards.
However, NA Speaker’s answers to journalists’ questions were logical. Therefore, the source of the error of the two different standards that are currently outstanding comes either from the desire to get a populist effect from Nikol Pashinyan’s speech in 2017, or from the legally imperfect wording of Article 80 of the Constitution. And since Nikol Pashinyan’s interpretation of this provision of the Constitution cannot be seen among the “provocative news” mentioned in his 2017 speech, therefore it remains to interpret Article 80 of the Constitution based on the literal meaning of the words and expressions contained in it, and talk about the defect or imperfection in the Constitution.
Today, it is unlikely that any sane person would be against the statement that our Basic Law was amended in 2015 and passed with falsehoods in order to implement the political plans of Serzh Sargsyan and the entire criminal-oligarchic system. It is in today’s Constitution that one can find many falsifications, shortcomings, ambiguities, anti-democratic formulations, which constantly inhibit the work of state building.
It seems that after the “velvet” revolution, the recovery of the political system had to start from the foundation, constitutional changes. Unfortunately, the task of implementing radical changes in the country is facing the wall of the government’s unwillingness. the executive seems to lack the political will to reform the country’s Basic Law.
That is also the reason why many officials objectively find themselves in an uncomfortable situation for a year, they are unable to accept and consider the negative phenomena that are taking place in the light of the constitutional regulations. Such behavior gives rise to public dissatisfaction with the activities of the government. Sometimes it is necessary to make a “very absurd interpretation” of the law on this or that issue, not to mention that our main political agenda is to abandon Serzh Sargsyan’s “super-presidential” Constitution and initiate the process of adopting a new reformed Constitution.
It can be confidently asserted that in the coming months there will be many challenges that will make the government face the facts, forcing them to either admit that the main evil for the country is the current Constitution, or accept the fact of the decline of public trust in their activities. There is a simple truth that everyone should accept. if citizens in a constitutional republic and their elected leaders not only do not take care of the “needs” of the public contract that regulates their lives, the Constitution, that is, they do not deal with it, moreover, they despise its role and significance, then one must be prepared that the Constitution itself will deal with them, their destiny one day.
Saro Saroyan
https://acnis.am/hy/analysis/20-2019