TODAY’S SECURITY COUNCIL - MERE FORMALITY
Support A1+!Vazgen Manukyan, Paruyr Hayrikyan and Ashot Manucharyan once stated that as a matter of fact the National Security Council is not functioning in Armenia to date. The issues that should be considered by the council are being settled by one or two persons.
Representatives of other opposition forces share this opinion. Head of the National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan consider that the clause on the Security Council should be fixed in the Constitution “The National Security Council is a structure dealing with the issues of state and national strategy, consequently neglecting it in the Constitution testifies of the non-perfection of the latter”, Paruyr Hayrikyan says.
In his opinion, if in Armenia the division of power the activities of the Council should have been headed by the head of the executive power. “I think in some cases the certain limitations of publicity of the Council are natural, since the security is bound with gander and demands cautiousness”, the NSD leader says.
When commenting on the issue deputy chairman of the National Unity Alexan Karapetyan said, “There are national issue, which should be discussed somewhere”. As for the structure of the Council, he supports the new variant – two-level Security Council. The first level should have a rather expanded composition to discuss the problems referring to the state security in all the fields. The second level should be more limited and will be dealing with issues, which demand secrecy. To note, the second composition should include representatives of the whole political field. “All the parties of the National Assembly should be presented in it. It should be trusted as their mission is considerable”, Karapetyan says. He affirms that the National Security Council should determine the regularity of its activities proceeding from the necessity. If actual issues do not demand everyday sittings the Council members should gather at least once a month to consider the problem in the economic, political spheres as well as the internal and external policy. At that the process should be rather transparent, he says.
Leader of the National Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan adheres to the opinion that the activities should regulated by a separate law and points out to the experience of some foreign states. “The Council should be composed by the President, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, NA Speaker, Minister of Home Affairs and other figures, who will jointly consider the security issues. Thus the members of the Council will not be able to impose some decision upon the President by voting while the President will have to count with the opinion of the majority”, he said. He is convinced that the activity of the must not be public. The outcomes of the activities can be published only with the agreement of the council members. Vazgen Manukyan is should be headed by the President and no one else.
Lena Badeyan
