In Armenia, There is an Entity That Can Send the Constitutional Court Home, and That is the Citizen: Nikol Pashinyan

Last year, the parliament initiated disciplinary proceedings against the President of the Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, regarding the Constitutional Court. This was stated today by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a campaign event in Kajaran.

“It was said that since there is a case being examined by the Constitutional Court related to the ‘March 1’ case and considering the fact that Hrayr Tovmasyan has previously expressed multiple positions related to ‘March 1’, and taking into account that Hrayr Tovmasyan is a representative of the political team that came to power through ‘March 1’, and given that the essence of an independent judicial system implies that an interested party should not participate in discussions related to them, and since it is accepted among judges to self-recuse, and since Hrayr Tovmasyan has not declared a self-recusal, the National Assembly requested that the Constitutional Court examine the issue and impose disciplinary responsibility on Hrayr Tovmasyan based on that,” Pashinyan stated.

The Constitutional Court considered this matter and responded by saying, ‘No, National Assembly, even though you have the right to initiate such disciplinary proceedings according to law, I will not examine your disciplinary proceedings, because in my interpretation you can only apply to us on this matter when we have initiated disciplinary proceedings ourselves and recorded a violation,’ Pashinyan added.

Pashinyan also noted that through this, the Constitutional Court seized and arbitrarily denied the National Assembly of a power that is clearly enshrined in laws, and the decision of the Constitutional Court is not subject to appeal. “Now the Constitutional Court should have at least initiated disciplinary proceedings on this basis to understand whether there is a problem or not. But the Constitutional Court has given no reaction. This means that the Constitutional Court is, in essence, refusing to fulfill its functions and is depriving other branches of power of similar functions. They have built a fortress around themselves, saying, ‘We are the highest body in Armenia, what we say cannot be appealed, discussed, and no one can say anything to us at all.’ There is an entity in Armenia that can send the Constitutional Court home. There is an entity that can assess the activities of this Constitutional Court, and that is the citizen of the Republic of Armenia,’” Nikol Pashinyan declared.