The Court of Appeals Accepts Tiran Khachatryan's Complaint

The Court of Appeals has accepted Tiran Khachatryan's application against the President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sarkissian and the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan regarding the absence of a legal relationship in appointing Arshak Karapetyan to the position of the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, reports Factinfo.

It should be noted that the Administrative Court had previously rejected the application, stating that Khachatryan was not entitled to raise such an issue, which led Tiran Khachatryan's lawyer to file an appeal.

"Considering the fact that the appropriateness and legality regarding the dismissal of Tiran Khachatryan, a national hero and lieutenant-general of the RA Armed Forces from the position of the first deputy chief of the General Staff are already contested in administrative cases VD/2529/05/21 and VD/1788/05/21, it is evident that the appointment of Arshak Karapetyan to the position directly violates the rights of the applicant enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, international treaties, laws, or other legal acts, particularly the rights stipulated in articles 50 (right to proper administrative procedure) and 57 (right to protection in case of unjustified dismissal) of the Constitution, which also justifies the interest of the applicant in this case," stated the lawyer.

He noted that, under the conditions of accepting Tiran Khachatryan's application and by virtue of Article 83 of the Administrative Procedure Code of Armenia, the implementation of the decision of the President of the Republic of Armenia No. NH-25-A dated February 24, 2021 on the dismissal of Tiran Khachatryan from the position of the first deputy chief of the Armed Forces has been suspended. Additionally, the orders No. 350-A and No. 2-A issued by the Minister of Defense Vagharshak Harutyunyan on February 26, 2021, and March 15, 2021, and the order No. 830-A by the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces on March 19, 2021, have also been suspended in another case.

"Therefore, the circumstances mentioned above also testify that appointing any person to the position of the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces should not have been carried out (due to the suspension of that process), as there are other ongoing judicial cases connected to the applicant’s dismissal, which have not yet reached a judicial conclusion," emphasized the lawyer.

The Court of Appeals concluded that the circumstance of the applicant being a "interested party" is subject to evaluation through an analysis of material legal norms and assessment of the facts of the case during the actual review phase, through relevant administrative procedural procedures, in which case the basis for rejecting the acceptance of the application under paragraph 4 of part 1 of Article 80 of the Administrative Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, which states the application was submitted by a person who does not evidently have the right, is absent, and overturned the decision to reject the acceptance of the application.

Thus, the administrative court must accept and consider the demand to recognize the absence of a legal relationship in appointing Arshak Karapetyan to the position of the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces.