Why does Armenia need the Constitutional Court?

Interview by David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

The Constitutional Court of Armenia ruled in early April that article 8 of the law on accumulative pensions was unconstitutional. The law was violating people’s right to manage their wages and was characterized as discriminatory. The Central Depository and the Committee for State Expenses still obliges employers to allocate part of their salaries to accumulative pension funds.

The struggle against violators of the law has intensified. Hundreds of people started sit-in protests at the central square in Yerevan after gathering near the Ministry of Finance on April 12. Ex-Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan realized that the government could not have a crackdown and came out to meet the protesters, assisted by his godson, Minister of Finance David Sarkisyan. Met by whistles, the high-ranking officials tried to invite some protesters to the Ministry of Finance to show them documents and discuss the situation. The protesters demanded discussion of all issues with all activists. The functionaries refused and left the protesters.

Gevork Gorgisyan, an activist of the I am Against initiative, urged people to ignore communal payments and cash their salaries as soon as they are paid, so that it would not be put into the turnover of the banks. The activist encourages people to do that until the accumulative pension mechanism is cancelled. Activists have already started informing the population about the upcoming protests of April 25. Details of the upcoming affair are a mystery, so as to agitate a government indifferent to the opinion of the majority. However, all the protesters will send President Serzh Sargsyan a letter reminding him about his obligations and demanding he protect constitutional rights after the protests.

Artsvik Minasyan, a Dashnaktsutyun member in the parliament, declared that I am Against will file a lawsuit against the State Committee for Income and the Central Depository to the Administrative Court of Armenia. Minasyan is confident that further illegal money transfers for accumulation of pensions, despite the Constitutional Court’s verdict, were made to break the spirit of young people. The MP is adamant that all the declarations of the government had nothing to do with the real situation, because any laws with dual interpretation would be interpreted for the benefit of the population.