Serzh Sargsyan Critiques What He Created for Himself: Marukyan

“Serzh Sargsyan speaks about something that concerns them, because the mechanisms of checks and balances in the Constitution have been distorted, the logic of parliamentary governance is corrupted, and the authors of that Constitution are the very people themselves,” said Edmond Marukyan, the leader of the ‘Lucine Armenia’ faction, responding to Sargsyan’s statement at the European People’s Party congress, regarding the dangerous developments threatening democracy in the country.

“The foundations of constitutionality have been violated. The principle of separation and balance of powers is not functioning. The independence of the judiciary has been blatantly violated on numerous occasions. Political persecutions are being carried out,” he stated.

“Today’s political system has inherited a super-prime ministerial system that was founded by Serzh Sargsyan for himself, but one that he could not enjoy and now speaks of it post factum. The current government should be criticized for not yet transforming that system, and we continue to live in that framework where democracy in Armenia is at an emotional level because, at the institutional level, we have the system created by Serzh Sargsyan. I hope that the Constitutional Reform Commission being formed in 2020 will completely review the super-prime ministerial system,” he noted.

Regarding the political persecutions, according to Mr. Marukyan, if such a thing were happening, the faction would make a statement. Edmond Marukyan mentioned that he has spoken out on every concern raised so far. Regarding the statement of Arthur Vanetsyan about the “Open Society Foundations,” he remarked that if the former head of the NSS, Arthur Vanetsyan, has concerns, he should take certain actions.

“I assess that statement as political, intended to maintain potential intrigue and create expectations for future discussions,” added Edmond Marukyan.