My Step faction deputy Tatevik Hayrapetyan considers the upcoming constitutional referendum of April 5th to be an unprecedented event in Armenia because, according to her, it is an obvious example of the implementation of democracy.
During a meeting with journalists at the Tesaket press club, Tatevik Hayrapetyan, referring to accusations about why they did not vote on this in parliament and are instead giving the people this responsibility, said, “If we took that step, people would have blamed us. We chose the most democratic path and, perhaps, one of the most difficult. Armenian citizens have the right to exercise their rights and desires through a referendum. People are making this a smaller issue and into something that is only about Hrayr Tovmasyan and the seven judges. But that is not what it’s about. We are referring to the entire institution.”
Tatevik Hayrapetyan expressed that Armenia had rigged elections not too long ago much like Azerbaijan, and the same Constitutional Court was appointed as a result of those rigged elections. “These events were continuing and taking us closer to our doom. This was not only a democratic issue, but a security issue as well. I don’t know how much people in Armenia realize this, but democracy is a component of security for us. In this case, the decision surrounding the Constitutional Court is that Armenian citizens need to have guaranteed that the revolution will continue and that no force in Armenia will ever try to rig elections again. If a force does attempt to come to power in that way, it will meet an unbiased Constitutional Court and will then be erased from history. This is the path that we are giving Armenian citizens the opportunity to go on with this referendum. I believe that the citizens will take their step once again.”
Upon the observation that many people do not know what the constitution is and why the referendum is taking place, therefore they do not know how they will vote, Tatevik Hayrapetyan responded, “There will be a clear campaign where we will present the details. I believe that many people are well aware of the fact that the Republicans turned the Constitutional Court into their final bastion and they will attempt to spread their former system of values to us.”
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In response to a question about what guarantees the people have that the Constitutional Court will remain unbiased, Tatevik Hayrapetyan said, “They will be nominated, after which they will come to parliament for a questions and answers session. A specific procedure will take place.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
