Armenian lawyers demand that president Sarkissian resolve the political crisis

YEREVAN, March 9. /АРКА/. A group of lawyers and public figures have gathered today outside the presidential residence in Yerevan demanding that President Armen Sarkissian ask the Constitutional Court to verify the constitutionality of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's decree to sack the chief of the armed forces' staff Onik Gasparyan.

The chairman of the Chamber of Advocates Ara Zohrabyan told the journalists that they expect the president to fulfill his constitutional duties to resolve the political crisis in a civilized way.

"Instead of taking the dispute between the prime minister and the chief of the army's staff to a political platform, the president actually renounces the instrument, vested in him by law," Zohrabyan said.

Under law, the deadline for the president to apply to the Constitutional Court expires today, March 9.

Zohrabyan warned that the ongoing political crisis is fraught with threats to the constitutional order in Armenia - after all, if the chief of the army's staff refuses to resign, and the army generals support him, another conflict will arise.

"If the president does not appeal to the Constitutional Court today, we will try to find out what his concerns are and why he is he afraid of the prime minister. What is it that made him backtrack on his previous demand that Pashinyan resign," Zohrabyan said.

Zohrabyan also stated that if the president does not appeal to the Constitutional Court today, it will become a gross violation and may be the basis for starting the process of his resignation.

Nikol Pashinyan has been facing opposition demands to resign since he signed a peace deal in November with Azerbaijani and Russian leaders to end the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed thousands of young lives, and saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter of a century.

The standoff has intensified after Pashinyan fired a deputy chief of the army's general staff Tiran Khachatryan who reportedly laughed off his claim that only 10% of Russia-supplied Iskander missiles that Armenia used in the conflict exploded.

After Khachatryan's sacking the chief of the army staff Onik Gasparyan and more than 40 other high-ranking army officers signed under a statement demanding Pashinyan's resignation. Pashinyan reiterated by issuing an order to sack Gasparyan and called the demand as attempted coup.

However, Armenia's largely ceremonial president, Armen Sarkissian refused to sign it and sent back to Pashinyan's office. "Political struggle must not go beyond the bounds of the law, it should not lead to shocks and instability," he said in a statement.

Pashinyan quickly resubmitted the demand warning that the president could be impeached if he fails to endorse the move.-0-