Armenian parliament declines inclusion of Nikol Pashinyan’s president impeachment bill in agenda

Only four members of the parliament voted for putting the bill on the National Assembly’s floor, while 68 voted against that. 

None of the Armenian National Congress’ MPs took part in the vote. 

Levon Zurabyan, head of the Armenian National Congress’ faction, said the faction can’t vote for this imperfect and vulnerable version of the bill. 

“I wonder why our colleague [Nikol Pashinyan] submitted the bill contrary to our arrangements,” he said. “I think that approval of this version of the bill would be a great gift to Serzh Sargsyan.” 

Pashinyan, on his side, said that not a single proposal has come from opposition political parties over several months of the bill discussion in the committee. 

On the past Friday, members of the National Assembly’s committee on state and legal affairs, voted down the president impeachment bill proposed by Nikol Pashinyan, opposition MP. 

Pashinyan accuses Serzh Sargsyan of committing treason against the state, abusing powers eight times and exceeding authority one time. 

He considers the signing by Sargsyan the Armenian-Turkish protocols in Zurich as treason. 

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic ties since Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. 

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its ally, Azerbaijan, which had a dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan. 

There are several sensitive issues complicating the establishment of normal relations between the two countries, particularly Ankara’s blatant support of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians the Ottoman Empire as genocide. 

The thaw in relations between the two countries began in 2008 at the Armenian president's initiative. In 2009 October 10 Armenia and Turkey signed "Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations" and "Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations" in Zurich which were to be ratified by the parliaments of both countries. 

However, on 22 April 2010, the President of Armenia signed a decree suspending the ratification of the protocols, stating that Turkey was not ready to continue the process. 

One week ago, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, in his letter to National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan, informed the latter about his decision to withdraw Armenian-Turkish relationship normalization protocols from the parliament. 

Pashinyan said that the president abused his power when in June 2009 ordered dismissal of the group set up for collecting facts of the bloody events of March 1 and 2, 2008. 

After the 2008 presidential election, Armenian opposition headed by the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who lost the then race for presidency, staged protests saying the election had been fraudulent and the results had been rigged. 

The rallies ended in clashes between protesters and law enforcement agencies. As a result, ten were killed and 200 injured. Many were arrested. 

Pashinyan also accused Sargsyan of doing absolutely nothing for confirming the information he himself voiced on February 12 about billion-dram tax evasion by the Prosperous Armenia party leader. 

 Relations between Gagik Tsarukyan and Serzh Sargsyan worsened after the latter, speaking at a meeting of the executive board of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, lashed out at his former coalition partner describing him as ‘a scourge for the country who lacks intelligence, skills and education to govern Armenia.’ Sargsyan told Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan to instruct corresponding bodies to thoroughly investigate the veracity of “unverified reports” implicating Tsarukyan in large-scale tax evasion. 

In retaliation to Sargsyan’s crackdown, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party said the following day that the current situation in the country requires solution and 'the only solution is a complete change of power through extraordinary presidential elections.' 

Gagik Tsarukyan said also he was offered the post of president of the country but only after constitutional reforms that would turn Armenia into a parliamentary republic. 

He claimed that the reform is aimed at enabling Sargsyan to stay in power after the end of his second and final presidential term in 2018. Tsarukyan said he declined the offer causing Sargsyan’s anger. ---0-----