Lawyer urges Armenian authorities to make public new document presumably planned to be signed in Moscow

Panorama, Armenia
Jan 8 2021

A group of people staged a protest in front of Armenia’s Ministry of Justice on Friday, demanding that the authorities make public the treaty presumably planned to be signed between Armenia and Azerbaijani at the upcoming trilateral meeting in Moscow.

Citing its sources, the channel MediaPort on Telegram said on Thursday that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is going to “make new concessions” in Moscow. "The document was secretly sent to the Ministry of Justice today in order to conform it with the Constitution," it said.

However, Ministry of Justice spokeswoman Lusine Martirosyan dismissed the reports as “fake news” on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, lawyer Elinar Vardanyan, a member of the Alternative Projects Group, stated the reports on the discussion of the document by the ministry may be true. According to her, it can be a preliminary step in case of submitting the document to be signed to the Constitutional Court in order to prevent its constitutional controversy.

"If actually such a document exists, it should be made public so that it doesn’t come as a surprise to the people as it was the case on November 10. They told lies to the people for 44 days, signing a document in a single day. And even today I am not satisfied with the short response of the Ministry of Justice spokeswoman on Facebook. I am not happy with the denial, because I am afraid that after 44 days of lying, another lie will be imposed on us," she said.

The lawyer urged authorities to publish the treaty if it really exists, instead of issuing a denial.

"If someone persuades me that Nikol Pashinyan is heading to Moscow unprepared on 11 January, I will be convinced once again that the authorities have completely failed. If the authorities are going to take part in such a crucial meeting unprepared, there are no authorities in the country,” she said.

According to Vardanyan, now people are carrying out their struggle on social media, because either they do not realize the threats facing the country, or it is just convenient for them.