Armenian CC`s decision has nothing in common with constitutionality  of work schedule of border demarcation commisions

ArmInfo. Member of the "Five Human Rights Defenders" initiative, lawyer Arsen Babayan commented on  the text of the decision of the Constitutional Court of Armenia regarding the decision on the constitutionality of the regulations on the joint activities of the commissions for demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, published the day before on the Court's website and causing a great stir.

"I read the discussed decision of the Constitutional Court. From this  incomprehensible text, I understood only two things. Firstly, the  decision has nothing to do with the issue of the constitutionality of  the regulations of these commissions.

Secondly, in its decision, the Constitutional Court asserts that  Armenia renounced the Declaration of Independence in accordance with  the 1995 Constitution, and nothing changed in this regard in 2005 and  2015.

Probably, only specialists in the Constitution will understand more  in what was published by the Constitutional Court. Although, I have  doubts about them too," Babayan wrote.

On October 30, another scandal erupted in the Armenian segment of  social media. It was caused by the decision published on the website  of the Constitutional Court regarding the constitutionality of the  regulations on the joint activities of the commissions for  demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On page 27 of the published 33-page text of the decision, it is noted  that "in the conditions of the rigid and monolithic USSR, a legal  system radically opposed to the ideas of independence, sovereignty,  democratic freedoms and law and order of the peoples under its  jurisdiction, and completely permeated with an extremely intolerant  ideology towards them, the Declaration, effectively overcoming the  barrier of Soviet legal stability, provided a legal window through  which, consistently, with the implementation of the right of peoples  to self-determination, Armenia achieved the above-mentioned  milestones."

"The subsequent effect of the transition to the path of gaining legal  force of any provision of the Declaration outside the framework  directly established by the Constitution of the sovereign,  democratic, social and legal Republic of Armenia (especially the  unchangeable provision of the Constitution) with the potential danger  of "constitutional dualism" will turn the Declaration into a "parent  devouring its child".  Neither the Declaration nor the Constitution  pursued this goal. As a result of the totality of all the above  considerations, in order to fully resolve the issue set out in  paragraph 2 of this decision, the Constitutional Court comes to the  conclusion that the provision "proceeding from the fundamental  principles and national goals of the Armenian statehood" "established  in the Declaration of Independence" in the preamble to the  Constitution does not refer to any principle or goal enshrined  outside the Constitution," the text says. 

At the same time, the Constitutional Court notes that this conclusion  of the Constitutional Court no longer cancels the provision "based on  the joint decision of the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR and the  National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh of December 1, 1989 "On the  reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh."