During the interview stage of the candidates for judges to the ECHR nominated by the RA, Vigen Kocharyan, a member of the SJC, referred to the provisions of the Mother Law regarding the special role of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

He reminded that he was a member of the Constitutional Commission in 2005 and participated in the development of the Constitution in the previous edition.

“I was directly involved in the development of the wording that was included in the 2005 edition of the Constitution. It was said there that the Republic of Armenia recognizes the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church and it was also stated that it recognizes the freedom of religion, the freedom of the activities of religious organizations.

Unfortunately, during the subsequent constitutional amendments, the mentioned balance was violated because the wording was changed. The current Constitution already mentions the national church. In my opinion, it is a rather problematic wording, because the legislation and international practice do not provide any definition of the “national church”, it is not clear what legal or non-legal consequences should be derived from such constitutional records,” Kocharyan noted.

Details in the video.