“Kocharyan breached the Constitution first”
"The 1995 Constitution was written in four years by a 20-member task force, including the President of the Republic of Armenia and in the last year the NA Chairman as co-chairs. The committee had already convoked over 100 sessions, and the task force held meetings several times a week. In the end, they prepared a very good document that managed to help the country confront all challenges and fully stood the test," HAK central office representative Ashot Sargsyan told "A1+".
According to him, the constitutional reforms adopted in 2005 were qualitatively poor and included many flaws, starting from small and large discrepancies and ending with misunderstandings in terms of language.
"The office of president became untouchable, and the idea of impeachment became unfeasible. Before the reforms, the president and the NA could declare each other's impeachment and the parliament could declare lack of confidence in the president. After the reforms, impeachment turned unfeasible due to the third link, that is, the Constitutional Court where the impeachment issue is introduced, and the NA discusses the declaration of impeachment based on the CC conclusion. That was stated in the 1995 Constitution. Now, if the CC gives a negative conclusion, the parliament can't do anything. The competence that the NA had to declare impeachment regardless of the CC conclusion has been modified," says Ashot Sargsyan.
The constitutional referendum didn't take place in 2003 due to the lack of a quorum. At the time, there were 100 proposals for reforms. "Then, 80 of their 100 proposals were modified again in the version that was presented for the 2005 referendum. This showed how unserious the authorities were toward the Constitution," Ashot Sargsyan notes.
"The Constitution can be a very good, perfect one, and it can have flaws. But it's better to have a flawed Constitution that works than to have a perfect Constitution that doesn't. A flawed Constitution that doesn't work is twice as bad.
The RA Constitution hasn't been working since 1998, and Robert Kocharyan was the first to breach the Constitution. Without 10 years of citizenship and 10 years of permanent residency, he violated the Constitution in front of 3 million people and ran for the presidency when he had announced that he wouldn't participate in the elections due to the constitutional ban. When the country's primary figure breaches the Constitution, who will respect him and who will make the Constitution work?" says Ashot Sargsyan.
According to him, Serzh Sargsyan also breached the Constitution.
"His election was a breach of the provision of the Constitution stating that the prime minister can't hold office and run for president at the same time. He breached this provision and became president."
