Let’s record for the history that the members of
coalition who have signed under the project of constitutional amendments don’t
have any connection with that document in reality.Some people consider
the author of the current Constitution the head of the NA state legal issues in’90’s
Eduard Egorian, some of them consider the NA chief of juridical department Vladimir
Nazarian. And who are the authors of the current constitutional amendments? The
answer of the question can be seemed very easy. The head of RPA group Galust Sahakian,
the head of Orinats Erkir group Samvel Balasanian, the secretary of the ARF group
Hrayr Karapetian and the chairman of the NA commission of state legal issues Rafik
Petrosian signed under the project of amendments. But the process of constitutional
amendments proved that those who are considered de facto authors of the constitution
displayed the lack of information about the text. Certainly the coalition and
the RA President are politically responsible for this project. But anyway the
members of the coalition haven’t designed these amendments. A special working
group has realized that function the members of which, according to our information
was the Minister of Justice David Haroutiunian, the representative of the President
Armen Haroutiunian and representatives of "Democracy" organization,
the specialists of constitutional law Vardan Poghosian and Hrayr Tovmasian. Vardan
Poghosian affirmed during our interview that he worked on the text of project
in June-July that is after achieving principle agreements in Strasbourg on 23-24
of June. "There are different stages of designing the project; juridical
and political. In the mentioned stage politicians haven’t taken part, -Mr. Poghosian
mentioned. – The project was designed expertly after which the coalition and the
RA President agreed or didn’t agree with the made proposals." There is another
political power which pretends to the co-authorship of the amendments. The head
of ULP group Gurgen Arsenian informed during the interview with us that more than
60% of their positions exist in the document; "Our name isn’t written, but
our approaches are attached, including the same articles which have been transferred
from the text proposed by the ULP. For example, on the term of the NA activity,
it is our "no-how". The appointment of the prosecutor by the NA is also
our suggested model. We also wrote in the ULP project that only the NA could dismiss
the Prime Minister. Our approaches on the Constitutional Court, Central Bank,
Council of Justice are also included in this document."But the head of
ULP group mentioned that he didn’t speak of copyright; "Though there is a
very interesting and pleasant expression for us in the current project of amendments;
"The protection of intellectual property is provided in the RA. But as we
get salary for being engaged in legislative activity in the NA, so we don’t patent
the formulations." To our question who is the plagiarist Vardan Poghosian
answered; " I don’t remember that we have used the ULP project during our
discussions. Let’s also take into consideration that the ULP package was based
on the project of 2001. ULP hasn’t also hidden and has said honestly that they
also have used the project of NDP. But I don’t see any bad thing here as constitutional
projects aren’t protected by copyright and each person has a right to copy any
point from any project if it correspondents to its approaches. There are a lot
of points in the current package of amendments, which are taken from "Democracy"
project. And it is very important that the authors try to copy those good points
which exist in other documents."It was just "Democracy" organization
that criticized the current project of amendments in the "Aravot" stressing
on the unsettled problems. Was there the principle ” I born you so I’ll kill
you"? Vardan Poghosian answered to that question; ‘My and Hrayr Tovmasian’s
proposals were indeed expertly and have been taken into consideration as the RA
President or the coalition considered important. So in that case we aren’t from
the "fathers" of this Constitution. And we are only responsible for
the project of "Democracy" organization. And there are indeed very serious
omissions in the project of the coalition. Our debt as specialists was to stress
on the omissions. Whatever conclusion they come it is the business of those people
who are responsible for the project.Anna Israelian
