Lawyer decries Pashinyan's push for new constitution
Constitutional law expert Gohar Meloyan accused Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his cabinet members of repeatedly “trampling on” Armenia’s constitution.
“The constitutional order in the country has been overthrown in multiple cases,” she told Panorama.am in an interview on July 5 marked as Constitution Day in Armenia.
The lawyer pointed to the 2019 blockade of Armenian courts ordered by Pashinyan, as well as the “disgraceful” land handover to Azerbaijan as part of the illegal border delimitation in violation of Armenia’s constitution which requires a referendum for territorial changes.
"Armenian territories have been surrendered in yet another violation of constitutional norms,” Meloyan stated.
The expert accused the Armenian parliament majority of catering to the government.
“Here we see the intertwining of two branches of power intrinsic to authoritarian states,” she underscored, calling for accountability for officials who violate the constitutional norms and other laws.
Separately, Meloyan denounced Pashinyan's push for a new constitution amid Azerbaijan’s demands for a constitutional change in Armenia.
“We need a new constitution which the people will consider to be what they created, what they accepted and believe that what is written in it is their idea of the state they created and the relations between people and citizens in that state,” Pashinyan said in a message on Constitution Day.
"This is an increasingly dangerous process as Nikol Pashinyan wouldn't stop bowing to Azerbaijan’s demands,” the lawyer opined. “It risks the rejection of the Declaration of Independence which will deal a heavy blow to the country’s legal foundations. Azerbaijan will question Armenia's existence as a legal state before the whole world.”
“Fulfilling Azerbaijan's demands and succumbing to its threats, Nikol Pashinyan is making another concession, jeopardizing the legal basis of the third Republic of Armenia,” she added.