Armenia’s Constitutional Court made a decision that the obligations provided for in the document of Armenia’s affiliation to the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU) signed on May 29, in Minsk are in conformity to the Constitution. “The Constitutional Court not only recognized it constitutional, which is obviously anti-constitutional, but also made an obvious propaganda in favor of the Eurasian Economic Union”, such opinion was expressed by Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator of the “Union of Informs Citizens” NGO, in the interview with “Aravot”.
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court, to put it mildly, was praising the EaEU Commission, even misleading people, as noted by Daniel Ioannisyan, the court said that the EaEU passes decisions by consensus, while the decisions at the EaEU Commission are made by majority vote. Daniel Ioannisyan presented the EaEU Treaty provisions, which are obviously anti-constitutional. “Under the agreement, a number of functions of Armenia’s National Assembly and the government passes over to the EaEU Commission. For example, the power of defining the payment rate of taxes and duties is entirely granted to the National Assembly, currently, the rate of all types of taxes will be defined by this body, and according to the EaEU Treaty, it will be determined by the EaEU Commission, in contrast to Armenia’s willing. In other words, they can add custom tariffs. The size of taxes to be paid by the citizen of Armenia or any entrepreneur operating in Armenia will be determined by a body, which was not elected by the citizen of Armenia. In addition, this body is not bound in any way to present the interests of Armenia, and we do not have influence on its formation, too.
There is also one more contradiction with our Constitution, according to which the financial-loan policy is attributed to the government, it also passes to the EaEU Commission.” According to Ioannisyan, the provision saying that the EaEU decisions are binding on the territory of Armenia is also anti-constitutional, whereas the Article 1 of the Constitution of Armenia says that the Republic of Armenia is a sovereign state. “What does it mean? A committee sitting in Moscow can make decisions that are binding in the territory of Armenia. It was so during the times of the Soviet Union, but at that time, we did not have a Constitution saying that we are a sovereign state. In other words, Armenia’s sovereignty is at stake under this EaEU Treaty.”
The NGO representative, comparing the EaEU Treaty with the well-known gas or Armenian-Turkish agreement, which were also discussed in the CC, said that he considers the EaEU Treaty the most obvious anti-constitutional one. “Even, there is no need to prove.” Yesterday, the representatives of the Constitutional Court, as presented by Daniel Ioannisyan, repeatedly said that Armenia always has the right to withdraw from this agreement. “But Armenia has the right to withdraw not at once, but with procedures that last about one year. Well, I am sorry, with the Constitution of the Soviet Union, we had the right to withdraw at once. To the point, in the USSR, for example, during Stalin’s time, let someone dare to withdraw from the Soviet Union, you know well what would happen. EaEU is the restoration of the Soviet regime.”
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CC did a selection work from the entire EaEU Treaty, and as Mr. Ioannisyan had told, was trying to present the positive aspects, while it is possible to find positive provisions even in the German capitulation agreement, however, the EaEU 1000-page agreement would definitely contain some positive aspects. “The Constitutional Court bypassed all disputing issues and did not make the anti-constitutional matters as the mere subject for discussion.” Yesterday, the public against the EaEU organized a protest rally at the Constitutional Court. Armenia’s affiliation to the Customs Union, the EaEU, was announced on September 3, last year, while over this one year, no large-scale protests were held. There was a wave of big protest, according to Daniel Ioannisyan, because a campaign was carried out saying that by joining the Union, allegedly, there would be privileges to the citizens of Armenia, let’s say, a number of products would become cheaper, the entry and exit of labor migrants to Russia would be facilitated, they would have advantages. “People believed in this propaganda. They were talking about negotiations over 9000 products for allegedly not to define high prices. Whereas, several years later, there would be a rapid growth of prices on several thousand products.” To our observation that after the September 3 statement, it was a lot talked about that Armenian’s military security issue is due to this Union, Mr. Ioannisyan said, “Yes, they say that Russia is out military ally. There is something that should be made clear. The three EaEU member countries: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, are constantly supplying Azerbaijan with weapons. None of the leading arms-selling countries, the US, Scandinavian or another state, equips Azerbaijan. Russia, Turkey, Israel, some South African states sell weapons to Azerbaijan. Look, the USA, Great Britain and Russia are the guarantors of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but it turned out that the Russian military base served not to preservation of the integrity in Ukraine but the occupation of the Crimea, in other words, Russia is an unreliable ally.”
Nelly BABAYAN
