
{"id":7813,"date":"2019-06-24T10:58:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T10:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/?p=7813"},"modified":"2019-07-02T11:00:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T11:00:02","slug":"spotlight-news-june-17-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/spotlight-news-june-17-21\/","title":{"rendered":"June 17-21. Crisis Situation in The Constitutional Court of Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week the RA National Assembly (NA) elected lawyer Vahe Grigoryan judge of the Constitutional Court of Armenia (CC) with 99 votes in favor and 23 votes against. Two days after his election, on June 20, Grigoryan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=51F6ryArviw&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced<\/a> the crisis situation in CC.<\/p>\n<p>Grigoryan&#8217;s grounding is as follows &#8211;\u00a0 there are no legitimate judges in CC except from him and Arman Dilanyan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.panorama.am\/am\/news\/2018\/09\/13\/%D4%B1%D6%80%D5%B4%D5%A1%D5%B6-%D4%B4%D5%AB%D5%AC%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6\/2003150\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">elected<\/a> by NA in December, 2018.\u00a0 According to Grigoryan, the other 7 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.concourt.am\/armenian\/structure\/members\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">persons<\/a> presenting CC, including Hrayr Tovmasyan, the CC Chairman, are just CC members and not judges. Meanwhile, according to the RA Constitution, the Constitutional Court consists of judges elected by MPs. This serves as basis for Grigoryan to announce that besides taking the office of CC judge, he will also carry responsibility for &#8220;The Implementation of authorities and duties of CC Chairman,&#8221; as the other legitimate judge is on vacation during these days.<\/p>\n<p>Current CC Chairman Hrayr Tovmasyan, has not responded to this statement officially yet, but there will probably be new developments on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>Hrayr Tovmasyan has taken the post of CC Chairman since March 21, 2018 on the basis of RA NA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.concourt.am\/armenian\/news\/index2018.htm#2603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decision<\/a>. He was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/a\/29072827.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">elected<\/a> CC member on March 2, 2018 with 64 votes in favor and 27 votes against. That time, Tovmasyan was Member of Parliament, chairing the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs and represented interests of ruling Republican Party.<\/p>\n<p>9 days after resignation of the previous CC Chairman Gagik Harutyunyan, he took the office of CC Chairman. Harutyunyan resigned as he was elected president of the newly established Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after PM Nikol Pashinyan&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/spotlight-news-may-18-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announcement<\/a> on the judicial reforms, Gagik Harutyunyan and SJC several members <a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/spotlight-news-june-1-7\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Before being elected CC judge, Vahe Grigoryan was the <a href=\"http:\/\/forrights.am\/2018\/09\/17\/%D6%83%D5%A1%D5%BD%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%A2%D5%A1%D5%B6-%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%B0%D5%A5-%D5%A3%D6%80%D5%AB%D5%A3%D5%B8%D6%80%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A8-%D5%B4%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%BF%D5%AB-1-%D5%AB-%D5%A3%D5%B8%D6%80%D5%AE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">representative<\/a> of the legal successors of the victims of the events of &#8220;March 1&#8221; case, 2008. Grigoryan is also known as a lawyer protecting interests of 4 families in Buzand Street at the beginning of 2000. The latters refused to sell their property in spite of the Government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armenianow.com\/hy\/news\/5950\/jailed_for_defense_of_justice_buza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decision<\/a>, according to which there should have made some construction in the area under the name of &#8220;state needs&#8221; (talk is about current Northern Avenue).<\/p>\n<h3><strong>SJC New Members<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>On June 20 and 21 NA elected SJC new members. Both candidates were nominated by NA &#8220;My Step&#8221; faction.<\/p>\n<p>Grigor Bekmezyan received 107 votes in favor and 4 votes against. Bekmezyan is a civil law <a href=\"http:\/\/ysu.am\/science\/hy\/Grigor-Bekmezyan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">expert<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fip.am\/7144?doing_wp_cron=1561446236.7949090003967285156250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">represents<\/a> CSTO former Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov&#8217;s interests within the framework of &#8220;March 1&#8221; case. 114 MPs voted in favor of Vigen Kocharyan, and 4 MPs \u2013 against. He <a href=\"https:\/\/hetq.am\/hy\/article\/104912\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has been<\/a> in the post of Deputy Justice Minister since 2015.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Alienation precondition of &#8220;Nairit&#8221; Plant<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;Nairit&#8221; plant is being put up for auction next week. There is one precondition for alienation. A business plan is required which will allow to fully restart the plant&#8217;s production and infrastructure. This decision was made on June 18 during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tert.am\/am\/news\/2019\/06\/18\/nairit\/3028581\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">advisory<\/a> meeting of 8 members of the &#8220;Nairit&#8221; plant staff and RA Government representatives. When submitting such a business plan to the Government, the coordinating group members will also be invited to share their views. It is noted that this will exclude the plant partly alienation with uncertain future.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>New Council for the Needs of the Disabled<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>According to PM Nikol Pashinyan&#8217;s decision on June 19, a Coordinating council for the implementation of reforms of Disabled people&#8217;s needs assessment system will be set up. The decision runs that head of the council should also involve international donors and non-governmental organizations while carrying out the reform <a href=\"https:\/\/iravaban.net\/230104.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">process<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Translated by Mary Grigoryan<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Ampop Media<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>For Armenian original\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ampop.am\/spotlight-news-june-17-21\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CLICK HERE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9\u00a0The copyright of stories and visualizations on Ampop.am belongs to \u201cJournalists for the Future\u201d NGO. It is forbidden to use Ampop\u2019s content and images without active hyperlinks to the source website. Uploading of infographics and images of Ampop.am is possible only in case of an agreement reached with JFF.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week the RA National Assembly (NA) elected lawyer Vahe Grigoryan judge of the Constitutional Court of Armenia (CC) with 99 votes in favor and 23 votes against. Two days after his election, on June 20, Grigoryan announced the crisis situation in CC. Grigoryan&#8217;s grounding is as follows &#8211;\u00a0 there are no legitimate judges in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212],"tags":[839,496,184,842,838,841,649,508,162,600,209,598,182,609,269,845,844,840,843,815],"class_list":["post-7813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-constitutional-court","tag-digest","tag-government","tag-hrayr-tovmasyan","tag-judge","tag-lawyer","tag-march-1","tag-my-step","tag-nairit","tag-news-digest","tag-nikol-pashinyan","tag-pm","tag-prime-minister","tag-reform","tag-reforms","tag-republican-party","tag-secretary-general","tag-vahe-grigoryan","tag-vigen-kocharyan","tag-yuri-khachaturov"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2.png",1340,541,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-300x121.png",300,121,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-768x310.png",768,310,true],"large":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-1024x413.png",1024,413,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2.png",1340,541,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2.png",1340,541,false],"wp_review_large":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-320x200.png",320,200,true],"wp_review_small":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-65x65.png",65,65,true],"herald-lay-a":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-990x541.png",990,541,true],"herald-lay-a-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-1320x541.png",1320,541,true],"herald-lay-b":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-470x264.png",470,264,true],"herald-lay-b-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-640x360.png",640,360,true],"herald-lay-b1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-300x200.png",300,200,true],"herald-lay-b1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-414x276.png",414,276,true],"herald-lay-c1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-470x313.png",470,313,true],"herald-lay-c1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-640x426.png",640,426,true],"herald-lay-d":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-215x120.png",215,120,true],"herald-lay-d-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-300x168.png",300,168,true],"herald-lay-d1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-130x86.png",130,86,true],"herald-lay-d1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-187x124.png",187,124,true],"herald-lay-f":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-300x168.png",300,168,true],"herald-lay-f-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-414x232.png",414,232,true],"herald-lay-g1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-74x55.png",74,55,true],"herald-lay-g1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-111x83.png",111,83,true],"herald-lay-i-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-300x168.png",300,168,true],"herald-lay-i1":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-215x161.png",215,161,true],"herald-lay-i1-full":["https:\/\/ampop.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ampop.am-2-300x225.png",300,225,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ampop Media","author_link":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/author\/editor\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Last week the RA National Assembly (NA) elected lawyer Vahe Grigoryan judge of the Constitutional Court of Armenia (CC) with 99 votes in favor and 23 votes against. Two days after his election, on June 20, Grigoryan announced the crisis situation in CC. Grigoryan&#8217;s grounding is as follows &#8211;\u00a0 there are no legitimate judges in&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7855,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7813\/revisions\/7855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampop.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}