COURT MEETS ARMENIAN ASYLUM HOLDER’S CLAIM OF PENSION

Prague Daily Monitor
June 25 2009
Czech Republic

Brno, June 24 (CTK) – The Czech Constitutional Court (US) Wednesday
complied with the complaint by Mnatsakan Pogosyan, an Armenian holder
of Czech asylum, against the Czech authorities’ refusal to grant him
an old-age pension.

The authorities then said the Czech Republic had terminated its
agreement with Armenia on the recognition of the years for which
the pensioner worked before retirement, which was signed by then
Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in 1959.

However, Pogosyan’s defence counsel said the Czech Republic failed
to publish the agreement’s termination properly.

Pogosyan lives in Prague. In 2005 he asked the Czech Social Security
Administration (CSSZ) to grant him an old-age pension on the basis
of the agreement from 1959.

The CSSZ rejected his request saying that the Czech Republic terminated
the agreement with Armenia through a diplomatic note.

The Prague Court and at the Supreme Administrative Court then rejected
Pogosyan’s complaint.

In his constitutional complaint, his defence counsel said the state
did not announce the termination of the agreement in the Law Digest.

US deputy chairwoman Eliska Wagnerova supported the defendant’s
position.

"The constitutional law unambiguously implies the [state’s] duty to
publish all changes in international agreements, including unilateral
legal steps. The state and its Foreign Ministry made a mistake when
they failed to publish the information about the diplomatic note’s
content," Wagnerova said.

The courts have to deal with the case again. They are supposed to
meet Pogosyan’s claim.

Wagnerova said Pogosyan’s claim must be assessed in a way as if the
Czech Republic had never terminated the agreement.

The CSSZ is likely to recognise the years for which Pogosyan worked
in Armenia while calculating his pension.

Pogosyan, 77, was granted Czech asylum for humanitarian reasons
several years ago.

People such as those refusing to serve in the military and Jehova’s
Witnesses, reportedly face persecution in Armenia.