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.