The Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia has issued a clarification regarding the decision of the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia to grant the interim measure in the administrative case concerning Onik Gasparyan. The clarification is presented in full:
“Onik Gasparyan, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, was relieved of his post on 10.03.2021 on the basis of a decree of the President of the Republic that entered into force by virtue of law, pursuant to a constitutional norm, which was recorded by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia in a statement issued the same day.
Onik Gasparyan first submitted to the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia a claim for contestation, requesting that the President’s decree be declared invalid — a decree that had been confirmed by the Prime Minister’s statement of 10 March 2021 declaring Onik Gasparyan relieved of the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia by virtue of law — and a claim for recognition, demanding that the decree be declared void.
On 15.03.2021, the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia returned the claim and proposed that the incorrect type of claim be replaced with the proper type (the decision to return was presumably handed to the claimant in person, with prior notice, since the claimant submitted the amended claim the same day; the same decision was not provided in person to the respondent). The same day, the substituted claim was submitted — Onik Gasparyan’s lawsuit against Armen Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia, and Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, seeking recognition of the absence of legal grounds for relieving the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the post by virtue of law in the absence of an administrative act adopted by the President of the Republic on the basis of the Prime Minister’s proposal to the President of the Republic regarding the dismissal of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan — which was accepted for proceedings. A motion for an interim measure was also submitted. On 17.03.2021, the Court granted the motion for an interim measure, deciding to take an interim measure in the form of a temporary satisfaction of the claimant’s demand, namely: until the final judicial act resolving the case on its merits enters into legal force, to recognise the absence of legal grounds for relieving the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the post by virtue of law in the absence of an administrative act adopted by the President of the Republic on the basis of the Prime Minister’s proposal to the President of the Republic regarding the dismissal of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan. It should be noted that, pursuant to Part 2 of Article 139 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the relevant act — in this case, the decree of the President of the Republic — enters into force by virtue of law.
The Constitution does not provide for the possibility of reversing an act that entered into force by virtue of the aforementioned constitutional norm. Consequently, Onik Gasparyan has been relieved of the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, and the process of appointing a new Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, under the procedure established by Part 2 of Article 139 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, continues.”
