The Chief of Staff Will Continue to Serve: Gohar Meloyan

The Chief of Staff will continue to serve: This was announced on his Facebook page by constitutional expert Gohar Meloyan.

“The Chief of Staff will continue to serve (In addition to my previous post) Article 155, Part 3 of the Constitution stipulates that the highest military official of the armed forces is the Chief of Staff, who is appointed by the President of the Republic upon the proposal of the Prime Minister for a period set by law.

- In other words, the authority to dismiss the Chief of Staff is limited by the Constitution to maintain the inviolability of the armed forces in the context of political relations (The grounds for dismissal are general – loss of citizenship, a legally enforced guilty verdict, resignation request, etc.). Article 139 of the Constitution specifies the cases and procedure for appointing and dismissing the highest command staff of the armed forces and other troops, in which the authority to dismiss the Chief of Staff is not provided.

- This means that the Constitution grants a special status to the Chief of Staff and does not authorize either the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister to have the possibility to dismiss the Chief of Staff.

Regarding Article 40, Part 3 of the “Law on Military Service and the Status of Servicemen,” which provides for the possibility of discretionary dismissal of officials holding military positions in the highest command staff, it does not apply to the Chief of Staff because, as I mentioned, the Constitution does not provide such an opportunity, and the Constitution is superior to law. Constitutional bodies are only authorized to perform actions for which they are authorized by the Constitution. Secondly, the legislature has distinguished the Chief of Staff from the highest command staff of the armed forces and other troops by stating that the Chief of Staff is the highest military official of the armed forces and has granted him a special constitutional status.

- Therefore, the process initiated regarding the dismissal of the Chief of Staff is itself unlawful, and Onik Gasparyan will continue to serve in his position. I had previously addressed this issue as well; the link is in the comments.”