Tuesday, October 22 2019 17:28

ArmInfo. There is a significant political component in the story around Constitutional Court's President Hrayr Tovmasyan and his father. Director of the Caucasus  Institute Alexander Iskandaryan, adding that according to the logic  of revolutionary changes, representatives of the branches of state  power should either change position or completely obey.

<In the case of the Constitutional Court, the political component is  clear as God's day. After the revolution, in Armenia there is a  change of elites: first the executive branch, then the local  self-government, then the legislative branch. The next step is the  judiciary and the press. This process cannot stop in the middle>, he  stressed.

The fact that the "hands" of the authorities reached the  Constitutional Court a year and a half after the revolution,  Iskandaryan does not see anything surprising. He recalled that, for  example, it took months to hold parliamentary elections. Moreover,  what is happening in Armenia fits well with the logic, since the  revolution itself implies a change of branches of power.

<In Armenia, the legalist revolution, that is, occurs by legal  methods, in accordance with the letter of the law. Meanwhile, in the  case of the Constitutional Court, it is extremely difficult to find a  legal way>, said Iskandaryan, noting that Hrayr Tovmasyan himself may  be forced to leave his post.

<It is clear that in the story around Hrayr Tovmasyan and his father  there is an essential political component. However, according to the  logic of revolutionary changes, the branches of power must either  completely swap or completely obey. From a political science point of  view, the current situation in Armenia is extremely interesting>,  Iskandaryan noted.  Meanwhile, according to him, the situation with  Hrayr Tovmasyan could develop differently if the authorities could,  as before, take 500 thousand people to the streets. <Wide social  support was until recently the only instrument of the new  authorities. However, it is decreasing, and this is not unusual given  that 1.5 years have passed since the "velvet revolution". Euphoria  cannot be eternal. Accordingly, today this toolkit does not work as  it did before>, the expert summed up.

To recall, the Special Investigative Service (SIS) opened a criminal  case on the seizure of state power by a group of persons on the basis  of a statement by the independent deputy of the National Assembly of  Armenia Arman Babajanyan. The case was brought under Article 300 of  the RA Criminal Code (seizure of power through violence or the threat  of violence, as well as the appropriation of the powers of the  president, chairman of the National Assembly, government or the  Constitutional Court by methods not provided for by the  Constitution). The statement of the MP concerns the legality of the  chairmanship of the head of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Hrayr  Tovmasyan in this position.

The MPin his message to the Prosecutor General's Office noted that  Tovmasyan committed violations of the law upon assuming this position  in 2018. That is, Tovmasyan's MP duties were terminated without a  corresponding statement, on the basis of a nonexistent justification  by the then NA President. According to Babajanyan, parliamentary  duties cannot be terminated on non-existent grounds.  Recently, Hrayr  Tovmasyan's father gave explanations on the fact of obvious abuses  and outstanding work in 2012-2014 during construction work on the  restoration of the building on Zaqyan Street in the amount of 855  million drams, as well as repair work in the Abovyan Penitentiary  Institution and near one of the capital's schools in the amount of 15  million drams.