There is No Such Provision in the Constitution: Hovik Aghazaryan

There is no provision in the Constitution that mandates a quorum for a National Assembly session. This was stated by Hovik Aghazaryan, a member of the ruling Civil Contract party, in an interview with NEWS.am, commenting on the opposition's allegations that it is unconstitutional for the Civil Contract party to boycott a session called under the law.

“When our opposition colleagues proposed to hold an extraordinary session in accordance with the law, the National Assembly Council did not approve it; therefore, an extraordinary session must be convened by law. That is under the force of law, but on the other hand, a member of parliament is free in their activities. We often interpret the Constitution according to our preferences, but that is not the case. We have not violated the Constitution; this is simply a political position. We believe this is just manipulation. They should understand that it is not possible for 20 members from the ruling political force to join their initiative and present it with a call for the government's resignation,” he said.

Aghazaryan noted that the so-called message was discussed so much that it ultimately reached the Prime Minister: “Their goal was for this to be used as another detail by our opposition colleagues during the rally scheduled for June 12 when the Council's decision was not accepted, to say, ‘Look, dear people, even innocent things are not being accepted, so please come a little closer to the National Assembly so that our assault on the National Assembly is crowned with success.’ This is all very transparent and understandable for everyone,” emphasized the member of parliament from the Civil Contract party.

It is worth recalling that the opposition factions ‘Armenia’ and ‘I Have Honor’ submitted a request to the National Assembly Council demanding an extraordinary session be convened before June 17, with the agenda being a message from the National Assembly regarding the resignation of the government and the formation of a new government. The Civil Contract party voted against that initiative and announced that they would not participate in the session scheduled to occur under the law on the 17th. On June 17, the Civil Contract party did not participate in the session, no quorum was achieved, and the session did not take place.