By Mark Dovich

Armenia’s National Assembly adopted constitutional amendments on June 22 that remove several judges on the country’s Constitutional Court. 89 lawmakers, all affiliated with the ruling My Step alliance, voted in favor of the amendments, while representatives from the two opposition parties represented in the 132-seat legislature, Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia, boycotted the vote.

The amendments eliminate a grandfather clause in the constitution that allows Constitutional Court judges appointed before April 2018, when a 12-year term limit was introduced, to serve beyond that limit. Under the newly-amended constitution, three of the court’s nine judges—Alvina Gyulumyan, Hrant Nazaryan, and Felix Tokhyan—are required to resign. Additionally, the amendments require that judge Hrayr Tovmasyan give up his position as head of the court, though he may retain a seat as one of the court’s nine judges.

The National Assembly’s vote to remove several of the court’s judges comes after a constitutional referendum on the matter, originally slated for April 5, was postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in Armenia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has long clashed with the Constitutional Court judges appointed prior to the 2018 Velvet Revolution, and with Tovmasyan in particular. The longstanding tensions stem primarily from Pashinyan’s perception that Tovmasyan remains an ally of the previous authorities and an impediment to the current administration’s efforts to implement judicial reform in Armenia.

Armenia’s judiciary ranks among the country’s least trusted state bodies, reportedly suffering from pervasive corruption at all levels. Since his election following the Velvet Revolution in 2018, Pashinyan has repeatedly labeled judicial reform a major priority for his administration.

Two previous attempts by the current government to remove Tovmasyan—one by a direct appeal to the Constitutional Court to impeach him, the other by passing legislation that provides judges with significant financial incentives to resign voluntarily—failed last year.

Opposition politicians have been scathing in their criticism of the government for moving to dismiss judges through a legislative initiative. Following the vote, Taron Simonyan, a representative of Bright Armenia, accused the ruling My Step alliance of hypocrisy, pointing out that before the vote, “laymers from My Step…said this issue could be resolved solely by referendum, because the constitution does not allow parliament to decide on this issue. Now it turns out that it can.”

Meanwhile, Naira Zohrabyan, a Prosperous Armenia lawmaker, reprimanded the ruling party for rushing the bill through the legislature in a matter of hours, claiming that “such a rush indicates not very honest behavior.” Zohrabyan also connected the vote to dismiss several Constitutional Court judges with the government’s initiation last week of criminal charges against Gagik Tsarukyan, the longtime leader of Prosperous Armenia and another government figure with close ties to the previous authorities, saying, “this initiative lays the foundation and establishes a dictatorship in Armenia.”

Other opposition lawmakers echoed Zohrabyan’s view of the decision as politically-motivated, with Iveta Tonoyan, also representing Prosperous Armenia, denouncing what she saw as an attempt by the My Step alliance at court-packing: “the authorities are trying to have a Constitutional Court that is beneficial to them,” she stated.

The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe that provides guidance to member states on issues of constitutional law, also weighed in on the matter, publicly issuing an opinion later the same day. In its opinion, the Venice Commission largely approved of the changes, noting that the National Assembly had the legal authority both to postpone the referendum and amend the constitution as it wished.

However, the Venice Commission also expressed regrets that the amendments passed do not envisage a transitional period to “allow for a gradual change in the composition of the court” and therefore “avoid any abrupt and immediate change endangering the independence of this institution”—a concept it had previously urged the Armenian government to implement if and when it decided to reform the court.

Though opposition politicians have cited the Venice Commission’s opinion on the matter to justify their opposition to the amendments, other government figures, including Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan and My Step head Lilit Makunts, have pointed out, correctly, that the Armenian government has no legal obligation to implement the commission’s opinion.

Meanwhile, Pashinyan publicly backed the National Assembly’s decision, writing on his Facebook page, “I am proud of our political team, the My Step faction.”