Constitutional Court Decision on the Legality of Onik Gasparyan's Dismissal Published

The Constitutional Court has published its decision regarding the constitutionality of Paragraph 3 of Article 40 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia on "Military Service and the Status of Servicemen," based on the request of the President of Armenia.

The Court recognized that Paragraph 3 of Article 40 of the Law on "Military Service and the Status of Servicemen" is in accordance with the Constitution.

Following a demand from the Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation on February 25 of this year, the latter announced that an attempt of military coup was underway and called on citizens to gather in Republic Square to “protect the revolution.” On the same day, Nikol Pashinyan signed a proposal to dismiss Chief of General Staff, General Onik Gasparyan, directed to the President of Armenia, which, however, was not signed by Armen Sarkissian and was returned to the government two days later.

On February 27, the Prime Minister resubmitted the same proposal unchanged to the President's office, and on March 2, Armen Sarkissian, without signing the proposal regarding Onik Gasparyan’s dismissal, appealed to the Constitutional Court—not to challenge the constitutional validity of the draft decree submitted by Nikol Pashinyan, but to address the constitutionality of the provision in Article 40 of the Law on “Military Service and the Status of Servicemen” that served as the basis for Gasparyan's dismissal.

Therefore, the decision came into force; the government published a statement from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, according to which Onik Gasparyan was de facto considered dismissed from the position of Chief of General Staff of the RA Armed Forces since March 10, 2021.

According to the contested provision of the President, the dismissal of high command military personnel can be carried out regardless of whether the grounds stipulated in part 1 of this article exist or not. In other words, according to this regulation, a high-ranking military officer can also be dismissed without reason.