168: Mandates Must Take, and that classic придурок is reusable

“Lessons” program the guest constitutionalist, political scientist Vardan Poghosyan.

The main theses of the interview are below.

• Any revolution matures and takes place when there is fertile ground within the country and external support. 2018 This happened in Armenia. A revolution does not happen because of any constitution. Unfortunately, among people who have been in opposition for quite a long time, there is such a delusion that the revolution of 2018 happened because of the Constitution. The Constitution itself defines the rules of the game within the country, and if the bodies that are called to maintain the constitutionality in the country do not do so, it means that the constitutional order has been defeated in the country. It has been defeated in Armenia since 2020. Unfortunately, in Armenia in 2018 people believed in a demagogue who was leading the country to ruin:

• There are people around me who say that presidential or semi-presidential systems of government were better than parliamentary ones. Then I say no system is bad in itself, it’s how the users use it that matters. The problem is not the system, but the political system and the balance of power. for example, allowing US President Trump to go to war against Iran without congressional authorization. So the problem is not the management system.

• The semi-presidential system itself in most cases leads to a crisis of internal governance. This was the main motive behind the transition to the parliamentary system of government. When the president wants one thing, the parliamentary majority wants something else, there are permanent crises in the country:

• The Constitution cannot answer all political situations. It all depends on what proportion of power you will have in Parliament.

• We have come to a turning point when Armenia was faced with a final choice by two centers: either the East or the West. Since 2018, Russophobia has led to a situation where people are no longer afraid of our two historical enemies, who are our neighbors, while neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan are still hiding their Armenian hatred and intentions towards us. There is no East-West choice here, there is a Russia, Iran-Turkey choice. 

• 2018 During the revolution, people did not reject Serzh Sargsyan, but Artsakh:

• Management systems and foreign policy direction, the geopolitical choice of the country are absolutely not interconnected circumstances. Today there are people who, in order to cover their bankruptcy, say that we got this law because of the Constitution, essentially giving the paper magical power.

• A demagogue like Edmon Marukyan, a classic camp-changer, actually does not understand anything about our Constitution. If a person makes insulting statements, you should come down to his level and say in response: you are a придурок, and everything else, and say that you are just a repeatedly used piece of rag (as Edmon Marukyan was rightly called by the political prisoner Armen Ashotyan from the detention center)… He probably forgot that in 2018 he used to pass by me half-bowing… They don’t argue with fools, they despise them:

• If some people say that this Constitution establishes a super-prime ministerial system, allegedly referring to the powers that are reserved to the Prime Minister, let them read the Constitution. According to this Constitution, the RA Prime Minister has as many powers as the Prime Minister of the country under any parliamentary government system or the President of the presidential and semi-presidential countries. In fact, now Pashinyan has established a super-prime ministerial system, because he says: I am the government. while the Constitution did not give the prime minister enough powers to act on behalf of the entire government.

• Pashinyan falsified the results of the June 7 elections, and it is obvious to me. This Parliament formed is an illegitimate Parliament. Is it the constitution’s fault that Pashinyan rigged the election, or is it the fact that he created law enforcement and other systems that fully comply with his instructions? If there was a presidential system of government and Pashinyan was the president, would everything be different? If he in 2021 did not have the majority that would have allowed it to form the system it is today, this image would not exist.

• The Constitution of 2020 It was changed by Pashinyan in a vulgar, rude way. The provision of the Constitution, as a result of which the composition of the Constitutional Court was changed, could not be approached by miles at all. By the way, when the then parliamentary opposition tried to challenge this decision in the Constitutional Court, it was this same classic придурок (Edmon Marukyan, SS) who did not give his votes to the opposition to apply to the Constitutional Court to recognize the NA decision adopted by the CP as unconstitutional. At that time, the CC was functioning with its old composition and the NA would definitely recognize that decision as unconstitutional.

• These elections are the most shameful in the history of Armenia, there can be no question about the legitimacy of the government. What legitimacy can we talk about when the leader of the number 1 opposition force, Samvel Karapetyan, is under house arrest, 800 people from the opposition teams have been arrested, there has been an unprecedented abuse of administrative resources, persecutions, repressions, shameful external interventions…

• Pashinyan not only does not have a constitutional majority, but he also does not have a majority according to the announced results. He does not have the mandate of the Armenian people. And in this case, it is not understandable to talk about not taking the mandates:

• Nikol Pashinyan has announced these days that he will be very happy if the 3 opposition forces do not enter the Parliament. In that case, he will introduce his pro-government satellite forces into the Parliament, they will tell each other hard, listen hard… In that case, they will have to violate the Electoral Code, because according to the law, those seats must remain vacant if all the persons on the list give up their mandates. Of course, I have no doubt that Pashinyan will achieve this by breaking the law. He will find the way to fill those places.

• With all due respect to people who honestly think that not taking mandates is the right thing to do, I’ll offer 2 counterarguments. Even if “Prosperous Armenia” (PAP) does not enter the National Assembly, Pashinyan will not have a 2/3 majority, which is a vital issue for Pashinyan. Without it, he will not be able to adopt a new Constitution or make changes to the Constitution, which Aliyev demands. There is no other way than 2/3 for it. A few days ago, the Minister of Justice (Srbuhi Galyan) said that there is an immediate right to a referendum. I can guess what Overton window the minister is trying to open.

If the opposition gives up the mandates, they will definitely have a 2/3 majority in the Parliament, so it is not worth giving that gift to Pashinyan. In KP, they are also thinking about implementing the right of referendum. What the minister said does not exist in the Constitution, they cannot hold a referendum by collecting the 300,000 signatures they said. They have no right to do so.

We can all participate in a referendum, but we do not have the right to hold a referendum. There should at least be red lines for a lawyer to say such nonsense. 

• Pashinyan did not achieve his dream, he does not have a 2/3 majority.

• If the opposition forces go to the Parliament to make a change of power, they should clearly announce it. Along with taking the mandates, the opposition should announce already today that they are generating a street fight, because without it it will not be possible to achieve a change of power in the Parliament. In the case of taking a mandate, if you have reached a revolutionary situation, you can legally replace one prime minister with another in the Parliament.:

• Everything is just beginning. Armenia has not had such type of elections, when the force that declared itself “democratic” went to such elections where everything was violated. Pashinyan no longer has the mandate that he claimed from 2018. 

• We have illegitimate elections and we will have an illegitimate Parliament. If the opposition takes the mandates, it should not be said that we have a non-legitimate Parliament and a non-legitimate Government, and the votes of the opposition are legitimate because they received the votes given to them, unlike the CP, which received its votes through fraud. 

• Opposition, you should not go and devote yourself to parliamentary work. Your only problem is the change of government. You must do your best to synchronize the street fight and the mandates of the Parliament to achieve a change of power. Nothing else should interest you in the Parliament:

• The goal of the opposition in the Constitutional Court should be to show the public what level of ugly falsifications there were.

• If the figures published by the Central Election Commission yesterday are final and if they refer to all the polling stations that exist in RA, including the 3 polling stations whose results were canceled, then in that case PAP overcomes the 4% barrier and will enter the Parliament.:

• It cannot be the case that only the numbers of PAP will decrease in the 3 canceled polling stations. if they canceled the results of the elections, then it should be considered that those 3 precincts do not exist at all. In that case, the PAP goes to the Parliament. It cannot be the case that other people’s votes are counted and PAP’s are zeroed out. It will be a total violation of the Electoral Code. CEC should either say tomorrow that the elections are over and the mandates should be distributed, or they should say that these are preliminary results and re-voting should be scheduled in those 3 electoral precincts. In any case, the CEC cannot say tomorrow that the elections are over and the PAP has not entered the Parliament. Electoral Code cannot be interpreted otherwise:

As for the classic придурок Edmon Marukyan, let us recall a few more episodes.

After the 44-day war, in 2022 On March 14, Edmon Marukyan was appointed ambassador with special assignments by order of Nikol Pashinyan.

2022 starting from April, they started the process of lowering the status bar of Artsakh. 2022 on April 20 In the “Pressing” program he beat his chest and justified why the status of Artsakh should be “lowered”.

To the question: who is the international community that is forcing Nikol Pashinyan to lower the status bar of Artsakh? Russia, America, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Great Britain, France, Europe? Edmon Marukyan, the chairman of the “Bright Armenia” party, the ambassador with special assignments clarified.

“The speech clearly stated that the international community told us: if you lower your bar, you will have international support, consolidation around you, your problem, if you don’t lower it, sorry, we can’t help you. Who is that international community? First of all, it is the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, and secondly, various member states of the European Union. In other words, the civilized world says: Dear people, you have set an unrealistic goal, you have gone through 30 years of deprivation, now a situation has come… Now or we are trying to rethink our negotiation process in some way, and this has been proposed, it is about rights to status, not from status to rights, or continue to say things that only we believe.”Marukyan said.

2022 On October 6, the leader of Edmon Marukyan, Nikol Pashinyan, recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan.

2025 at the beginning of February In the “Pressing” program political prisoner, the elected mayor of Vanadzor, Mamikon Aslanyan, referring to the elections of the council of elders of Vanadzor community and the role of the head of “Lusavore Armenia” party, Edmon Marukyan, said the following.

 “Edmon Marukyan is my fellow citizen. In all that chaos of Vanadzor, when they said through the sazandars that the mayor expropriated lands, what a political process, no one said that by keeping me behind bars, the management of Vanadzor was also kept behind bars. No one is saying that as a result of that process Vanadzor’s administration was overthrown. And they did it with the light hand of Edmon Marukyan.” told M. Aslanyan.

The elected mayor of Vanadzor recalled that he had met Edmon Marukyan 2 days before his arrest on Nikol Pashinyan’s order.

“They did not receive any mandate as a result of the elections. They wanted to appeal. They opened 9 precincts, saw that during the calculation my votes increase, theirs decrease, then they decided to appeal to the court. They contacted me, we agreed that Edmon will not go to court, because it is pointless to go to court, and I will hire his number one, a happy memory boy, a very decent person.

2 days after that, Edmon contacted me again, we met, he said that they are forcing me to go to court, and they will arrest you if you don’t get along with them. That’s how we parted, naturally, there was no problem finding a language. I told them: you have waged a war election campaign against me, what kind of agreement are you talking about? I am not against community cooperation, but there could not be a political agreement. For those people, the results and logic of the election were not important. I don’t live like Edmon, but I understand him. They gave Edmon a letter, and based on Edmon’s complaint, the Vanadzor Council of Elders did not hold a meeting for 3 years. I am not angry, Edmon was not a discovery for me, it was not that I had a better opinion about him and was surprised by it. Then, according to my information, he was given the position of Ambassador with Special Assignments for that service.” was presented by Mamikon Aslanyan.

Details in the video.

—