Hraparak: We are facing a constitutional chaos, says former high court official

Hraparak Daily has talked to Edgar Ghazarayan, a former chief of staff at the Constitutional Court:

In what way is President Armen Sarkissian’s application to the Constitutional Court – in connection with the law “On Military Service and the Status of Serviceman” – expected to affect the ongoing processes? Does Onik Gasparyan have any chances of re-appointment?

I cannot say anything given that the Constitutional Court has its own procedure of examining cases. Nobody can predict what decisions the Constitutional Court can make and what consequence or effect those decisions will have on the processes.

But Onik Gasparyan’s re-appointment, for example, may be a decision in point of fact. Is such a thing legally possible?

I hesitate to say it now. Anyway, I don’t think that such a decision is possible to make.

What decision do you expect then?

You know that our country – and the legal system on the whole – has plunged into a chaos … With a sober logic, unfortunately, it isn’t possible to envision - and interpret - our social life. While you say Constitutional Court, I insist that this Constitutional Court is anti-constitutional in essence.  If it is really a Constitutional Court, what then does Vahe Grigoryan have to do there? How come that Arman Dilanyan is now its chairman? How did the [newly appointed] three judges make their way into that institution? First, it is an anti-constitutional body as it is. Secondly, the president himself breached all the possible logical chains after he sent back the draft decree submitted to him to the prime minister with objections, highlighting the factor of anti-constitutionality. The prime minister immediately returned it to the president and the latter did not apply to the CC; instead, he sent the laws to the high court. Why doesn’t he similarly send also the law “On the Protection of Children’s Rights” to the Constitutional Court? The prime minister has now announced that Onik Gasparyan’s authority [as the chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces] was terminated "by force of law". It is not clear at all whether or not he accepts that. The rest of the command of the Armed Forces still insists on the prime minister’s resignation. And now they have released a statement saying that they are fulfilling Onik Gasparyan’s order. How are they doing that if they are appointing a new chief [of the General Headquarters]? To cut it short, there isn’t any layer in the society to rely on. Those people seem to have adequate thinking; what the hell are they facing now?

Did the president’s move [to apply to the high court] bear a legally formal character?

Not a formal character but rather a cunning step characterizing the president. And maybe he did really succeed in his efforts. I saw a headline reading: “President Turns to the Constiutional Court”. Many people are now thinking that he did – but with an absolutely different issue. The disputable norm was the presidential decree on sacking Onik Gasparyan as the chief of the General Headquarters. He demonstrated inaction with respect to that particular norm; it amounts to a criminal inaction. If you now turn to 10 different lawyers, you are sure to hear 10 different opinions. And it has nothing to do with those lawyers at all; it’s all about this situation, with the piblic life having long gone beyond the domain of the Constitution and legal relations. We are now living in a constituitional chaos.

What are the procedures at the Constitutional Court? In what timeframes is the president expected to consider the application?

The Constitutional Court has declared that it has received the application. So it has now to be assigned to a specific judge and undergo a preliminary study to be presented at a scheduled working session, which is then to decide on its admissibility. There are specific timeframes for each particular case; I don’t remember all of them by heart now.

You said that if you turn to 10 different lawyers, you are sure to hear different interpretations. In this atmosphere of disagreements and contradictions though, the prime minister is appointing a new chief of the General Headquarters.

How can he possibly make a new appointment now that Onik Gasparyan’s dismissal from office is still legally disputable?