The elections of the Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates will be held on 12 September. The candidates registered in connection with the election are Gevorg Gyozalyan, Tamara Poghosyan and Simon Babayan.

Iravaban.net spoke with Gevorg Gyozalyan to find out what the candidate’s vision is for the development of the chamber.

– What is your mission and vision to become the Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates?

– The Chamber of Advocates needs development as soon as possible, we must get out of this stage of stagnation, which, in my deep conviction, exists. I am coming with an agenda of changes. Major changes are needed in the Chamber. The first is the mechanism of mutual restraints and counterbalances, in particular, the members of the council should not have any connection with the chamber, should not be in labor relations, or be an advisor to the president, and so on. It should be provided by law that the chairman of the Chamber of of advocates should not be involved in politics, because when the chairman starts engaging in politics, we cease to be a professional body. In a word, my mission should be to make the Chamber of Advocates a professional structure.

– Do you consider equal the conditions when ta person who had served as director of the School of Advocates for 7 years, a former member of the Board and ordinary lawyers apply for the position of the Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates?

-Of course no. That program has been drawn up for a long time, respecting Mr. Babayan, I must say that we are in an unequal situation. He has been in the Chamber for more than ten years. We were elected a member of the Board together in 2011, at that time my votes were much higher than Mr. Babayan’s, but over the years his appointment as the Director of the School of Advocates, communication with the students, and making the school a closed system led to the closure of the school for a number of people. I myself taught at the school and for some reason that I did not understand, at some point I was left out of the teaching process. The healthy criticism was not pleasant for their ears and they did everything to prevent me from attending that school again. Mr. Babayan himself decides who should teach in that school; and he teaches both at school and trains the lawyers. They try to secure his rating that way. Our opportunities are unequal.

– Do you consider the Chamber a politicized structure?

-Definitely. The actions against the authorities, the obvious opposition rhetoric of the Chairman of the Chamber, the silence of the Board on all that show that they have an oppositional position. It is normal when the lawyer does that, but this is unacceptable when the head of the professional structure is engaged in political activity without resigning.

Details in the video.

P.S. Interviews with other candidates will be published in the coming days as well.