Yesterday, several dozens of advocates gathered in the session hall of the RA Chamber of Advocates to discuss the recent developments in the Advocates’ community. At the beginning, Ara Zohrabyan, the Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates of the RA stated that the hall was full and added, “If there are so many advocates and the walls of the Chamber have not cracked, it means that we are able to conduct a quiet discussion.” Notably the discussion was really calm. The format was decided in advance. According to it the advocates had to submit their questions in written form to Ara Zohrabyan and other members of the Board. After fulfilling this point of the agenda the advocates could ask questions verbally, after which the Board Members would present their reports.

The written questions were mainly directed to Yervand Varosyan and Lusine Sahakyan. Namely, “What had happened at the scandalous board meeting? By whose fault started the dispute? Why is Lusine Sahakyan negatively disposed towards the Public Defender’s Office?” However none of these questions was answered as the advocates had not come to the discussion. Prior to this Yervand Varosyan had informed us that they were boycotting the discussion as the format itself (sending written questions beforehand) already indicated the restriction.

In addition there were questions referring to the Constitutional Reforms, and whether the proceeding against Yervand Varosyan was initiated in the connection with the joint critical opinion on the reforms, asked one of the advocates. Referring to this question Ara Zohrabyan said that the proceeding was initiated on 2 June 2015, whereas the Constitutional Committee published the draft at the end of July. “Our colleagues publicized the opinion on 2 July, and initiating of the proceeding cannot be in any way connected with the constitutional changes,” The Chairman of the Chamber said.

Ara Zohrabyan was concerned with such statements that the advocates allegedly were subjected to pressure for their opinion on constitutional reforms. He noted that this were attempts to discredit the Chamber. “The rest of their statements, addressed solely to me, I do not think those undermine the reputation of the Chamber. If even one percent of their statement is true, it refers to a person. But in this case, it already indicates that the Chamber is involved in some processes,” he said.

Iravaban.net