Dashnaktsutyun is not going to back government-proposed constitutional amendments (video)
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun is not going to support the government-proposed constitutional amendments; Dashnaks have their claims. “If our demands are not met, the constitutional amendments won’t cost a dime,” says Dashnaktsutyun lawmaker Artsvik Minasyan. Dashnaks know that if they entrust the amendments to the Republicans, they will do everything to guarantee their reproduction. At present, Mr Minasyan does not see any option for Serzh Sargsyan’s stay in power after 2018. “They say that the acting president will become parliament speaker. In 2017, he will still be heading the country, which means that in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, if of course, they are held normally, the country’s president cannot resign office to assume a post in parliament. Even if he does it, we shall witness the opposite: the formation of a parliamentary republic,” he says. Dashnaktsutyun has submitted its proposals to the government which exclude Serzh-Sargsyan’s participation in the decision-making process of the future government. They also exclude election rigging, corruption, laying the primary accent on human rights. “The Constitution must not only declare and recognize the existence of basic fundamental human rights and freedoms, but must also determine mechanisms for their monitoring and protection, including the obligations of responsible authorities, who must ensure [with their actions] the realization of citizens’ rights,” says Mr Minasyan. He cannot understand the behavior of the two opposition forces that earlier called for a change in the system of government and today support the acting model. “Today the authorities say they want to change the system. Instead of posing our demands to them and forcing them to meet them, we put their intention under question and oppose the initiative. This is not a serious approach.” The Dashnak lawmaker would like the opposition forces to put their demands in the package of constitutional amendments, first of all demanding that the constitution exclude Serzh Sargsyan’s reproduction.
