PM Pashinyan Declares that Constitutional Crisis in Armenia is Over

YEREVAN — The constitutional crisis in Armenia is over, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday at a Q&A hour in the National Assembly. One day before, the National Assembly elected by secret ballot Edgar Shatiryan, Artur Vagharshyan and Yervand Khundkaryan as new judges of the Constitutional Court. Opposition factions have refused to take part in elections, which they say are contrary to the law and constitutional provisions.

“In any situation, there are groups, political or non-political forces that want to further their interests and agendas and to install their people, their candidates, their clients in certain positions on behalf of the public,” Pashinyan stated.

“I believe that what happened in the National Assembly was very important: it ended the crisis around the Constitutional Court,” declared the prime minister. “Does it mean that an ideal Constitutional Court has been formed? No, it doesn’t.”

Pashinian also lambasted civic activists who claim that the selection of the new high court justices contradicted the goals of the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” led by him. He said that they cannot act like “ardent defenders of the revolution’s values” because they played no part in the popular uprising that brought him to power.

Pashinyan indicated that since the government’s first nominee refused to seek membership in the Constitutional Court, the second candidate was nominated taking into account the opinion of the parliamentary forces.

On July 22, 2020, Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan signed the law adopted by the parliament on June 30 on amendments to the law on the Constitutional Court.