Predecessors and successors or serviles vs. rebels? Nuances of government elite's criteria

12:39 • 07.03.20

Analysis

Armen Kareyan

In the lead-up to the April 5 constitutional referendum, the authorities persist in their unsparing efforts towards beefing up the “YES” campaign to secure the desired outcome in the voting. The main thesis which the “YES” propagandists so stubbornly put the accent on, pushing ahead with it time and again is the contrived idea that the Constitutional Court “inherited” from the predecessors essentially hampers the state’s development on its way towards future progress. Consequently, if there is a real desire to create a “new Armenia”, everything possible must be done to radically replace the entire Constitutional Court.

Whereas the fact remains that amid their attempts to ″swallow up″ the judiciary, Nikol Pashinyan and his team do not for now have an argumented response to the question how exactly [Chair of the Constitutional Court] Hrayr Tovmasyan and his team hamper the country's progress in a situation that sees the authorities - which have declared the Constitutional Court the ″core of all evils″ - benefit, unhesitatingly and pleasingly, from the exclusive services of [Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission] Tigran Mukuchyan and or [Prosecutor General] Artur Davtyan, who were again bequeathed by the predessors. Is Tovmasyan the only remaining ″old″, with all the rest being the ″new″ ones?

... There aren't ″predecessors″ and ″successors″; it's all about ″serviles″ and ″rebels″, with Nikol Pashinyan’s political bias being the real yardstick. Unlike Mukuchyan or Artur Davtyan, Hrayr Tovmasyan has turned down Nikol Pashinyan['s offer] to be the authorities' client to serve only his own self to the detriment of the state interest. The authorities, which never before attached a priority value to the Constitutional Court (President of the Constitutional Court Ararat Mirzoyan mentioned that in one of his interviews), were to find out, sometime in the future, that the Constitutioal Court is the main obstacle they need to get rid of at any price amid their efforts towards turning the judiciary into a puppet. What led the aithorities to the conviction was, in particular, the Constitutional Court's September ruling dealing with [second President Robert] Kocharyan's case. Tovmasyan's issue turned vital for Pashinyan thereafter.

Tovmasyan refused to play into Pashinyan’s hands – unlike Mukuchyan (whom the prime minister once described as a figure-drawing master) or Davtyan. Their role is really inestimable in the process of building a ″new Armenia″. Nikol Pashinyan does not want a Constitutional Court maintaining the constitutional order and ruling out laws and initiatives running counter to the Constitution. What the authorities need is a totally governable body guiding itself by the power of ″telephone calls″; they want an institution that would fully harmonize its actions with the realities of new Armenia, pursuing the sole task of ″sealing″ the decisions from above without asking unnecessary questions. Hrayr Tovmasyan doesn't fit into those standards and is, in that sense, really incomparable with personages like Mukuchyan and Davtyan. And hence, he must be removed at every possible price.

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