Representatives of the executive and legislative bodies have been talking about the need to make constitutional changes for a long time. On 5 November, the Ministry of Justice organized discussions on Constitutional reforms.
Iravaban.net has launched a series of interviews, with the objective to present the observations and opinions of experts in the field on the need for constitutional reform.
We talked about the topic with Davit Harutyunyan, former Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, and member of the Executive Body of the Republican Party of Armenia.
-Mister Harutyunyan, the Ministry of Justice announced the initiation of the constitutional reform. To what extent its need is justified for it now?
– There is no legal document that cannot be improved and reformed, but in order for the reform to be effective, it is meaningful to make a diagnosis from the beginning, no word about that has been heard so far.
– Is the Constitution not viable?
– Up to this moment I have not seen any serious problem connected with this Constitution. The transition to parliamentary government was very well-founded. It is another thing that the incompetent government did not allow us to achieve the results we had outlined.
– RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan once mentioned that during the crisis that arose in 2020, the parliamentary system of government showed its non-viability. Is there a need to change the way the country is governed?
– It is not clear what they mean by saying that it did not show viability, I have not seen it so far. I have seen incompetent government, I have seen absolute ignorance in issues that are very important for the development of the state. I have not seen any serious vulnerability in the current Constitution.
– On 17 December, the Prime Minister signed a decision on starting the process of forming the Committee on Constitutional Reforms. Have you received an invitation to participate in the work of the Committee and if you do, will you accept it?
– I will repeat once again that the constitutional reforms are meaningful when the problems are outlined, there are no problems at the moment and it is not serious to talk about the reforms in those conditions.
– In your opinion, why do they start this process?
– I think that they have a problem to keep the power and in order to keep the power they make an attempt to change the Constitution.
Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
