The Chief of General Staff Still Continues to Serve: Ara Zohrapyan

President of the Bar Association Ara Zohrapyan wrote on his Facebook page: The Chief of General Staff Still Continues to Serve
The Prime Minister announced that as of March 10, 2021, the Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan is considered lawfully dismissed from his position (in reality, the effect is based on the presidential decree being accepted). In this case, there are two issues:

1. Due to the specific nature of military service, the presidential decree that has come into force (if we consider it a valid legal act) is insufficient for dismissing a senior officer from his position. A handover-acceptance process must follow the decree, which should conclude with a separate legal act regarding the removal from the military management body's personnel list. Only from that moment will the military service of the officer be considered finished. I remind you of the case of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff Tigran Khachatryan. The latter has been dismissed from his position by the presidential decree, yet he still continues to carry out the duties of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff because the handover-acceptance process has not been completed, and no legal act concerning his removal from the personnel list has been accepted.

2. According to the interpretation of Article 155, part 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, Chief of General Staff Onik Gasparyan may argue that the presidential decree is a null act. A null administrative act has no legal force from the moment of its acceptance and is not subject to execution or enforcement. The execution or enforcement of a null administrative act incurs legally established liability (see Article 62, part 1, clause “d”, and parts 2 and 3 of the Law on Administrative Procedures).

In this situation, since the President has noted the apparent inconsistency between the presidential decree and Article 155, part 3 of the Constitution and has avoided the obligation to transfer this dispute to the competent authority—the Constitutional Court—Chief of General Staff and his staff may also assert the nullity of the presidential decree based on the President’s public commentary. In any case, at this moment, the Chief of General Staff continues to serve.

The President's appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the constitutionality of the 'Law on Military Service and the Status of Military Personnel' has no connection to the aforementioned issue, as the President was obliged to appeal to the Constitutional Court to declare the GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSAL contrary to the Constitution.

Note: In the current situation, due to his indecisiveness and ineffectiveness, President Armen Sarkissian is responsible for any negative developments that may follow.