Newspaper: Armenia President’s urgent statement on not signing Constitutional Court law was PM’s instruction

YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: [National Assembly (NA) speaker] Ararat Mirzoyan had a hard time convincing [PM] Nikol Pashinyan that the Constitutional Court [(CC)] law, whereby the powers of three members of the CC are terminated, should not be published before 21 days, as it is a requirement of the law.

President Armen Sarkissian’s hasty statement on the day the law was passed that he would not sign the law was Pashinyan’s instruction. They agreed with him [Sarkissian] that he was announcing it, and a day later the NA president makes public, putting the law into force.

But after the raised uproar, Mirzoyan persuaded the Prime Minister that he and the MPs had already participated—on several counts—in the overthrow of the constitutional order, made illegal changes, to allow them not to do so.

After the discussion with his own lawyers, Mirzoyan presented substantiations that the 21+5 term should be maintained. He swore and promised that he would do everything, the CC is “already ours,” and no sittings will be convened until that term.