20:46, 6 February, 2020
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan made a speech at the extraordinary session of the National Assembly, which discussed the proposed draft amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan he stated in his remarks:
“Honorable National Assembly President,
Distinguished Vice-Presidents,
Dear National Assembly Members,
Dear People, Proud Citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
The applicable Constitution of the Republic of Armenia provides for a model of the Constitutional Court that is widely regarded by international experts as balanced. The essence of this model is as follows: Candidates for three Constitutional Court judges are nominated by the President of the Republic, the Government, the General Assembly of Judges, the election is made by the National Assembly, and the Constitutional Court becomes the upper instance for balancing between the three branches of power. At the same time, the new constitution has two important nuances.
Unlike the former Constitution, the RA President in office cannot be a member of any party, judges cannot be partisans either, and given the fact that the Speaker of the National Assembly has been deprived of the right or is not entitled to nominate a judge for the Constitutional Court, we can state that the risks of politicization of the Constitutional Court are mitigated as much as possible in the applicable Constitution.
The risks for the Constitutional Court Chairman to exercise pressure on the Constitutional Court are also mitigated, because unlike the previous one, the Constitutional Court Chairman is elected for a six-year term, not for life. In addition, a CC judge may be elected president of the court only once. In addition, unlike the previous Constitution, the President of the Constitutional Court is elected by the judges of the Constitutional Court and not by the National Assembly. In addition, the abnormal practice where the same person could be a member of the Constitutional Court for 40 years has also been eliminated. This is an abnormal practice, because when any president or prime minister remains in office for 30 or 35 years, we consider it a monopoly, dictatorship, but we deem it quite natural when the same person is a member or the chairman of the Constitutional Court for 35 years.
Under the new Constitution, the term of office of a judge of the Constitutional Court is 12 years. At the same time, the same person may be elected as a judge of the Constitutional Court only once. This is how the Constitutional Court is described in our Constitution at the moment. And this model, also with the encouragement and support of international experts, was chosen and introduced as a result of the recording and analysis of constitutional problems recorded in the history of the Third Republic, because de facto and de jure the Constitutional Court has become an advocate of electoral fraud and illegal power in the Third Republic of Armenia.
In the 1996, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 presidential elections, the Constitutional Court acted as an instrument that prevented the people from exercising their right to form a government in the country. The Constitutional Court made it clear that the citizens could not form a government in the country because it contradicted the conventional restraint of the sanction presupposition of a particular part of the case law. Then the members and the Chairman of the Constitutional Court wrote books on the need to conventionally impose sanctions on a particular part of the precedent logic of case law; they kept reading lectures, defending doctoral theses, and gave medals to European and not only European top lawyers. But they could not answer a simple question of the people. ballot stuffing, dead souls coming to the polls, bribery, beatings, threats to get fired, total control of the TV.
Therefore, in order to leave the burden of these cruel and unanswered questions in the past, to turn a new chapter in the constitutional law and history of our Constitutional Court, the new Constitution chos the balanced and logical model that I spoke about at the beginning and about which many words of encouragement and gratitude structures and experts. Let us call this model the Constitutional Court of Our Dream.
But now I have to ask a question that may seem weary in the light of what I have said from this podium because what I said is envisaged in the currently applicable Constitution. So, do we have that constitutional court of our dream today, I mean a balanced constitutional court? The answer is “No.”
Okay, we have been in a transition stage from the semi-presidential system to the parliamentary system during this period, maybe we just have not managed to have the Constitutional Court of Our Dream. When will we have one that will not be under the banner of a political grouping? Will we have such a constitutional court after all?
Yes, we will, but, attention, in 2035 at the earliest, if things keep going like this, if nothing changes in our country, just because as they wrote the transitional provisions of the currently applicable Constitution, the RPA officials formulated it the way to let the notorious constitutional court continue in office for as long as possible.
In fact, the former Republican government officials said the following: True, we have found the model of the Constitutional Court of Our Dream, where the Constitutional Court judge shall remain in office for 12 years, but we do not diminish the powers of the members of the old Constitutional Court, let them be members of the Constitutional Court as required by the Constitutions of 1995 or 2005.
As a result, we have two Constitutional Court members appointed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, whose term of office expires in 2026 and 2029 respectively, two CC members appointed by Serzh Sargsyan, whose term of office expires in 2021 and 2037, one member nominated by Hovik Abrahamyan and elected by the National Assembly, whose term expires in 2027, another CC member nominated by Galust Sahakyan and elected by the National Assembly whose term of office expires in 2031 and one CC member nominated by Ara Babloyan and elected by the National Assembly whose term expires in 2035. And although the incumbent Constitution stipulates a 12-year term of office for CC members, the overwhelming majority of members of the old constitutional court will serve much longer, sometimes three times longer than stipulated in the applicable Constitution.
A separate case is that of the Chairman of the Constitutional Court. Although the current Constitution stipulates that the Chairman of the Constitutional Court should be in office for 6 years, the incumbent CC Chairman will serve for 17 years until 2035. The case of incumbent CC Chairman Hrayr Tovmasyan is a separate story that needs a separate investigation.
Being one of the authors of the text of the current constitution, or rather Serzh Sargsyan’s trusted man in the editorial group and the de facto leader of the process; he did his best to adapt the text of the Constitution to his own plans. In essence, a deal was made between Serzh Sargsyan and Hrayr Tovmasyan with the following logic. Should Hrayr Tovmasyan conceive a text of the constitution that would give Serzh Sargsyan the opportunity to serve for life, then that very text should give Hrayr Tovmasyan the opportunity to serve as CC Chairman for life in spite of the Constitution itself.
By the way, Hrayr Tovmasyan did not reduce the term of office of the members of the old Constitutional Court, that is, he gave them the opportunity to serve more than the term prescribed by the new constitution for his own interests, because he had to serve in the old Constitutional Court until the age of 65, or for some members until the age of 70, because he originally intended that a CC member should be elected in the same way as he was given the opportunity.
He was elected to the Constitutional Court on March 2, 2018 though he knew that after some 37 days the procedure for being elected to the CC would be completely changed. NA Speaker Ara Babloyan nominated him for CC candidate, although he knew that only 37 days later the NA Speaker would be deprived of the right to nominate a member of the Constitutional Court, he was elected to the Constitutional Court for 17 years, though he knew that 37 days after his election the term of office of judges was to be 12 years.
To this end, Hrayr Tovmasyan ensured that, despite the existence of a completely new description of the Constitutional Court, in the current Constitution, the old members of the Constitutional Court would continue to serve because if their term of office were reduced, Hrayr Tovmasyan could not be elected to the CC for 17 years.
The same is true for the CC Chairman. Hrayr Tovmasyan was elected Chairman of the Constitutional Court on March 21, 2018 in the National Assembly, although he knew that only 19 days later the National Assembly would be deprived of its power to elect the Chairman of the Constitutional Court. Hrayr Tovmasyan was nominated for CC chairmanship though he knew that only 19 days after NA Speaker would be deprived of his power to nominate a CC Chairman, where it is written that the CC Chairman is elected by the Constitutional Court for a term of six years, the same person may not be elected President of the Constitutional Court more than once.
And now, to have such a constitutional court as is stipulated in the Constitution , the Armenian people have to wait until 2035, because Hrayr Tovmasyan, with the help of his party, the Republican Party, has secured the seat of CC Chairman until 2035, contrary to the text of the Constitution. I do not want to break anyone’s presumption of innocence, but the Republicans seem to have breached not only logic and morality on this path, but also the Criminal Code.
The problem is that the term of office of former President of the Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan would expire on March 25, 2018. If he had continued in office until the end of his term, then Hrayr Tovmasyan would not have been elected to CC chairmanship for 17 years by the National Assembly.
And to make this possible, they persuaded Gagik Harutyunyan, who had already been granted the status of Supreme Judicial Council Chairman, to tender his resignation in early March, 20 days before his term expired, so that Hrayr Tovmasyan could be elected to the Constitutional Court for life at March 20 National Assembly session, which was the last regular session of the National Assembly before the new Constitution came into force.
Gagik Harutyunyan submits his resignation on March 5, 2018, but the staff of the National Assembly understands that if Gagik Harutyunyan resigns on March 5, there would be procedural obstacles that could make it impossible for Hrayr Tovmasyan to be elected CC Chairman for 17 years on March 20, 2018 at the regular session of the National Assembly. Therefore, according to published data, they resort to fraud and register Gagik Harutyunyan’s resignation on March 2, allowing official falsification.
A criminal case has been instituted in this Special Investigation Service and my political assessment is unanimous. With this fraud and this whole story, the embezzlement of power has been allowed.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to state that due to a number of constitutional manipulations, the incumbent Constitutional Court and its Chairman have appropriated the power of the people of the Republic of Armenia. I already talked about its first episode. We are talking about Article 213 of the incumbent Constitution, which allowed the old Constitutional Court to continue in office under the new Constitution and in spite of the Constitutional Court described in the new Constitution.
But there is another, no less important episode. Hrayr Tovmasyan has been given more authority over the Constitutional Court than the people of the Republic of Armenia, who is the highest holder of power in our country, at least in the constitutional text. The problem is that under the current regulation, the constitution cannot be amended without the permission of the Constitutional Court. That is, the people of the Republic of Armenia may wish to change anything in the constitution, but the Constitutional Court will not allow it, considering it to be unconstitutional. At the same time, no one can dispute this position of the Constitutional Court.
That is, the people of Armenia may wish to deprive Hrayr Tovmasyan of his unlawful status of CC Chairman, but the Constitutional Court will not allow it, considering it unconstitutional. That is to say, due to the efforts of Hrayr Tovmasyan and the RPA, an entity has emerged in our country, which is above the people and that subject is the Constitutional Court. This is a cruel example of the usurpation of power. Absurd is the conclusion that the Constitutional Court can make irrevocable decisions even on its own status. This is a really scandalous absurdity, how can the Constitutional Court make such decisions about itself?
There are lawyers who argue how the National Assembly can make a decision on itself, the government can make a decision on itself, and the President, too, can do so. It seems like a powerful argument, but the decisions and laws adopted by the National Assembly can be appealed to the Constitutional Court by several entities, government decisions can be appealed to the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court, the President’s decrees and orders can be appealed to the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court and the only body whose decisions, including its status, cannot be appealed is the Constitutional Court”.
Find the continuation of the PM’s speech in 2nd part