This is a Political Decision: Badassyan on Arpine Hovhannisyan's Non-Appointment

Former Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan was not included in the Constitutional Reform Commission due to her participation in the 2015 constitutional reforms. This was stated by Justice Minister Rustam Badassyan during a press briefing today, January 30.

“The commission has not yet been formed. When choosing legal scholars and NGOs, we did not aim for there to be opposition members or pro-government members. There should be legal scholars and 2 representatives from civil society among the 6 legal scholars. Regarding Ms. Hovhannisyan, we acknowledge her sincere intentions as she has stated, ‘with sincere motives, I wanted to help.’ We do not intend to show with this step that we do not need her assistance or that we do; rather, it is simply indicated in Ms. Hovhannisyan’s application that she participated in the previous constitutional amendment works of the commission. We are speaking of informal participation; we have looked into this, and formally, Ms. Hovhannisyan was not part of the commission's work as a member of the commission, but we do not question that as well,” said Badassyan.