Former Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan finds it worrisome that the current Armenian authorities regard the constitution as a working schedule. Melikyan said that he was referring to the process of preparing for the National Assembly elections, where, according to the current law, a candidate for Prime Minister needs to be nominated but not elected twice in order for parliament to dissolve. “That’s not right. The constitution is a highly important document. We can’t treat is as though it were a menu. The parliament made use of the constitution’s technicalities twice. That increases worries that in other cases, in human rights cases, the government can make use of the law using the same methods,” Ruben Melikyan said.
He said that it’s at least good that Armenia has international legal responsibilities that promote the rights of Armenian citizens. “People need to think about how in the future, they shouldn’t treat the law as a working schedule. The constitution is a serious legal document.”
Responding to the question of how the Armenian government was supposed to organize snap elections, Ruben Melikyan answered, “If no force were to nominate a Prime Minister, were we supposed to find ourselves in an endless cycle and never have a Prime Minister? That’s absurd. We cannot comment on the law like that.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
