On 9 December, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the parliament regarding the current political tensions in the country.
He said that his government’s biggest task was to give people an opportunity to speak and express themselves. “Only the people should have the right to speak on behalf of the people. Our biggest challenge is to give people the opportunity to speak and express themselves so that we do not confuse the voices of certain groups with the voices of the people,” he said. Pashinyan emphasised that the most important goal of his government is to ensure that the “people's power” in Armenia is not endangered under any pretext.
He also denied the rumours that the trilateral agreement he signed had any attachments beside the official text. “Today I was told that there is information about attachments and other things. The demarcation works are to take place, which is rather extended work. There are issues in regard to which at least at this phase no public discussions will help,” he said. Speaking on the issue of border demarcation, Pashinyan’s Deputy Tigran Avinyan said that at the moment an interdepartmental group was working along the entire border of Syunik and that legal documents were being prepared for expected negotiations. Avinyan mentioned that these will probably take place this year with Russian mediation.
The country’s Constitutional Court (CC) has rejected the appeal by the leadership of the Armenian parliament to strip the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) Gagik Tsarukyan of his parliament seat. One of the court’s nine judges, Edgar Shatiryan said that the appeal was rejected on a technicality. He added that most of his colleagues believed that the parliament leadership failed to meet a legal deadline for reacting to the anti-corruption commission’s recommendation. To note, The Commission on the Prevention of Corruption claimed that Tsarukyan has violated a constitutional clause that bans parliamentary deputies from engaging in entrepreneurial activity. The commission said that he has continued to run at least some of the several dozen companies that he owns.
The leader of the Bright Armenia opposition party Edmon Marukyan met with the Prime Minister candidate of the Movement for Homeland Salvation, Vazgen Manukyan, and representative of the Supreme Body of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party, Ishkhan Saghatelyan. The situation created in Armenia and the possible ways to get out of the situation were discussed and the participants agreed to continue the meetings.
