Former Parliament speaker: Venice Commission understands skepticism of Armenian opposition (video)
Although the Venice Commission has approved the concept of the constitutional reform in Armenia, it sounded critical of its final version. The Commission also encouraged the Armenian government and the commission for constitutional reform to continue the efforts toward inclusion of the public and all interested parties, as well as political parties, Venice Commission Secretary-General Thomas Markert said during an international conference held in Yerevan. “Since the concept is good, we are hopeful that the texts and articles will be good, too. We give longer-term assessments and do not judge things by the current situation in Armenia,” he said. Thomas Markert says the criticism sounded by the country’s opposition is quite normal. “It is natural that the opposition is skeptical about the government: they may have good reasons for skepticism,” he said. Tigran Torosyan, a former speaker of the Armenian Parliament, says any reform is important for Armenia. The package of constitutional reform submitted in 2005 was not perceived equally by political circles. “Political parties, for example, failed to understand that the only way to come to power was to hold parliamentary, rather than presidential elections.” He hails the new concept of the constitutional reform and says it will change the ratio of political parties in parliament. Besides, it will change the order of dissolving the government and forming new cabinet.
