COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
- Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech this Independence Day did not draw me back to the times of his tenure, but as many others, to a much closer time – the coming presidential elections. And to the election campaign of the Impeachment bloc and its leader. That leader is the editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily Nikol Pashinyan, who is currently one of the closest allies of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, as well as the ideological advocate of his nomination for presidency. His newspaper has turned into the first president’s microphone and in response to any criticism towards Ter-Petrosyan the paper attacks with insult and curses.
In spring, Impeachment challenged voters with it a patriotic invitation: “The country’s salvation depends on one person, and that person is you.”
The question is how honest Pashinyan was in his one man’s factor appeal to make changes in the country with participation of each citizen.
I found the answer to that question on July 7 in his editorial where he compares the Constitution of 1995 with the amended one in 2005: “The first one was good or bad but a Constitution, the second is anti-Constitution, because the first one was the state’s principal law, the second is the law of the collapse of statehood. This Constitution aims at depriving the state of the executive power. And if Articles 1 and 2 weren’t irreplaceable, we would be facing an altogether different situation now”.
Pashinyan, most probably, means that the amendments envisage Yerevan to have a representative body, executive power, and the communities are granted some freedom.
To cut it short, this is a protection of a pyramid-shaped, vertical system with entire power centered in the hands of one person sitting on top of that pyramid (once called a king, then the secretary general, and now a president); a system that contradicts democratic principles, where decisions are made and implemented by one body.
Decentralization of government is one of the textbook principles of democracy.
Pashinyan’s viewpoint that the country’s being democratic is defined by the Article 2 of the Constitution, which says: “In the Republic of Armenia the power belongs to the people”, is an illusion, as one can come across such an article even in the most dictatorial countries. The Soviet constitution also ruled that the power belonged to the people, but the Article 6 gave that power to the Communist Party. The Constitution of 1995 made it clear that power belongs not to the people, but to one person, that is the President. He is the one appointing prosecutors, judges of all instances, ministers, the Prime Minister, who in his turn appoints governors of provinces, etc. He [the president] is in power to also dissolve the National Assembly.
The pyramid-shaped system started forming in 1991 after the presidential elections, but its actual establishment took place in 1995. Before 95 a representative of opposition had a chance to be elected to a local administration body: like, for example, in 1991 Dashnak Hovhannes Suqiasyan became the mayor of Ashtarak (the head of the executive committee), however the already forming pyramid could not tolerate a strange body in its administration, and he was killed in 1992. Only after the change of power the crime was disclosed and, eight years later, convictions handed down.
Although the amendments made in 2005 democratized the Constitution to some extent, the one man power was slightly split, powers were somewhat divided between the president and the parliament, it’s hard to guess now how those changes will work, especially that the recent parliamentary elections were held according to the old Constitution scenario, and the election system has remained vertical. Of course the pyramid is advantageous for the one on its top, and these reforms were not an expression of the authorities will, but a result of the pressure on the part of the Council of Europe.
But this split of power occurred only on the top of the pyramid, faintly spread over to some areas, only Yerevan was lucky. With cosmetic changes in the sphere of local administration- it’s not in the government’s power to dismiss the elected head of community by governor’s mediation, as it used to be, but it can be done based on the decision of the Constitutional Court. Nonetheless, local administration bodies did not gain freedom, and depend on appointed province governors.
As political analyst Yervand Bozoyan says, more fundamental amendments to the Constitution are required for true democracy, first of all provinces need to become self-governing, have representational bodies, a budget, and their governors should be elected by people, i.e. there have to be more of executive bodies.
“11 provinces are 11 totalitarian areas, and the appointed governor, being the carrier of the government allocated money to the province and the “zone watcher” and can treat the head of the community how his heart wishes.”
Consequently, not all who want can be elected a head of community and “perform executive power” without the authorities’ approval. They all are either from pro-government political parties or those having a government “roof”.
The constitution of 1995 monopolizing all the power (executive, legislative, judicial, local administration) brought about monopoly in other spheres as well- economy, religion, media, culture, and the principal trigger of development- competition- disappeared. And in these circumstances, when public movement cannot have any part in decision making, it turns into authority: projection of the constitution, and NGOs into a mini-model of the state with similar centralized system, that can do only one thing- earn money by grant projects under the pretence of public activities.
So, the Constitution of 1995 created a whole vertical anti-democratic system, the engineer of which is Levon Ter-Petrosyan. As the country belonged to one person, and not to the people, hence another single person would be able to take it from him, that’s exactly what happened as a result of power turnover in 1998.
Of course people have a quality of changing, and one can suppose that Ter-Petrosyan has reconsidered his views about the state structure. However, in his speech he did not criticize the system he had created and talked only about the achievements of his regime. And his ideological speakerphone “Haykakan Zhamanak” with its propaganda of the 1995 Constitution, shows that the former team not only hasn’t undergone any ideological changes, but is even proud and defends the anti-democratic system it had created.
Impeachment was like a stretching exercise before Ter-Petrosyan’s run for presidency, whose only plan is in replacing people – Serzh Sargsyan and Kocharyan with Ter-Petrosyan, rather than an ideological struggle. And if a person should be replaced by another person, what difference does it make to a regular resident who is in charge of appointing mayors, or whether the unfair court verdict is carried out by Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s or Kocharyan’s or Sargsyan’s order?
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
Angered by a US congressional committee’s support of a proposed resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy. The strong US ally, and ...COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
46Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech this Independence Day did not draw me back to the times of his tenure, but as many others, to a much closer time – the coming presidential elections. And to the election campaign ...KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
1
Gegham Sergoyan, 21, took an oath to the Republic of Armenia Army to serve his country. While serving that oath, he was shot dead by an officer for laughing. On April 15 Sergoyan was watching TV at his ...HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER IN HAYASTAN: ASSEMBLY INVITES APPLICANTS FOR 2008 INTERNSHIPS
“When I come to Armenia, I feel at home. And here, I listen, and I yearn to go back to the stories of my family. This country I grew to love, but did not truly understand why. Because, at first, I loved ...CAR CULTURE ICON: FIRST DRIVE-IN COMES TO ARMENIA
When twilight covers the city the unattractive and solitary area adjacent to the huge bulbs production plant in the outskirt of Yerevan has been transforming into one of the romantic spots in the capital. ...MISSION ARMENIA PRESENTS: SOCIAL HOUSE FOR ELDERLY TO BE OPENED IN YEREVAN
Amid hundreds of the new residential buildings in the city under construction, a three-floored building on 88 Sevak Street is not remarkable. Still it is probably the only current construction in the ...CUTTING INTO TROUBLE: ILLEGAL LOGGING DECREASES, BUT FORESTS STILL IN DANGER
Nazeli Vardanyan, chairwoman of the Armenian Forests NGO says the illegal logging of forests in Armenia has decreased twice as compared to previous years. While the amount of logged wood counted to annually ...DIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
Sometime within the next month, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection, through its new minister Aram Harutyunyan, will designate use of the Teghut region for mining exploitation. (Harutyunyan was appointed ...FREE?: INTERNATIONAL PRESS MONITORS SAY ARMENIA HAS SHOWN “UNPRECEDENTED” PROGRESS IN MEDIA FREEDOM; LOCALS DISAGREE
Despite the fact that the prestigious human rights watchdog Freedom House this year ranked Armenia among countries with “not free” media, and where freedom of speech is regressing, another international ...LAWS ON LEARNING: ASSEMBLY DEBATES CHANGES IN EDUCATION
The National Assembly’s standing committee for education and science organized parliamentary hearings on Tuesday (October 16) focused on proposed changes to legislation dealing with public education. ...FAITH FIGHT CONTINUES: JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES TARGETS OF HATE ATTACKS
Jehovah’s Witnesses say violence against them continues despite the attention of local and international organizations who oversee human rights abuses in Armenia. The five cases reported last year (see ...POINTS FOR EFFORT: FOOTBALL OFFICIALS PRAISE ARMENIA’S SOCCER DEVELOPMENT
The top executives of international and European football’s governing bodies praised the recent progress in Armenian football as they paid a two-day visit to Yerevan early this week. Sepp Blatter and ...BEATEN IN BRUSSELS: ‘RED DEVILS’ DASH ARMENIA’S HOPES FOR FIFTH SPOT IN THE GROUP
Football Three second-half goals from Belgium eclipsed Armenia’s otherwise promising performance in Brussels on Wednesday and put an end to their four-game unbeaten run in Euro-2008 qualification that ...
BIRTHING PAINS: FEE ON BABY DELIVERY REMAINS AN ISSUE OF CONTROVERSY IN ARMENIA
COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
OLD GAMES/NEW AUDIENCE: TUMANYAN’S WORK FOR CHILDREN GETS SECOND LIFE
DIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
HOSPITALITY WITH CAUTION?: MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD TO VISIT YEREVAN
Richard Giragosian and John HughesSPORT: ARONYAN’S FIDE RATING DROPS AFTER FIASCO IN MEXICO
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
FROM METSAMOR UPWARD: A LOOK BACK AT SPACE-MINDED ARMENIANS
MISSION ARMENIA PRESENTS: SOCIAL HOUSE FOR ELDERLY TO BE OPENED IN YEREVAN
- 1870 Birth of Atabek Khnkoyan (children's writer). He died in 1935.
- 1960 Death of writer Teegran Dzeetoonee.
- 1974 Creation of the Union Institute of Clinical and Experimental Surgery (USSR Ministry of Public Health) in Yerevan.
- Դավադրություն Հայաստանի Դեմ
- Անկախության 20-ամյակ
- Մեր սիրելի երգերը
- Հանապազօրյա Նավթը և Հայաստանի Աշխարհաքաղաքական Դիրքը
- Armenians and 2011 OSCAR
- Turks and Germans: Partners in Crime and Allies in Court
- Վերջ ապագիտական դեզինֆորմացիային
- Իսկ ե՞րբ մենք պիտի ունենանք մե՛ր Վրեժի Կտակարանը
- 2011 թվականը
- L’ARMENIE OCCIDENTALE ET LE DROIT INTERNATIONAL, AUJOURD’HUI !
ARMENIAN NEWS
INTERACTIVE NEWS
INFORMATION
MY ARMTOWN
How to quit smoking?
How to write in Armenian on Windows XP?
All materials published on this website are taken from open sources and are copyrighted by their respective owners. You cannot reproduce or copy any materials published on armtown.com without written consent of original copyright holder. If you want to remove any material, please send us an email with proof of ownership/copyright and your material will be removed immediately. All materials published for information purposes only.