President Armen Sarkissian ‘in blatant breach’ of Armenia’s Constitution – lawyer

By making the decision not to back Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decree on sacking the army chief and opting instead for applying to the Constitional Court, President Armen Sarkissian acted in blatant breach of the Constitution of Armenia, according to Gohar Meloyan, an expert in constitutional law.

In a public post on Facebook, the lawyer blamed the president for violating, in particular, Section 2, Article 123 of the Constitution (which obliges the president to observe the compliance with the organic law).

“Armen Sarkissian and his representatives complained, time and again, of insufficiency of the powers vested in him under the Constitution to allow him to invest his ‘broad knowledge and connections’ in Armenia.

“But every time Armen Sarkissian is to exercise his cornerstone constitutional authority over an issue of vital significance - observing the compliance with the Constitution - we eyewitness a kind of solution that make one think that Armen Sarkissian would better have no authority at all to sign even a paper …

“Let alone a constitutional amendment, a semi-presidential model …” she said.