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Constitutional reforms unnecessary, says Armeniaâ€™s second president

06 October 2015 13:21 (UTC +04:00)

In a new interview with the website 2rd.am, Robert Kocharyan said that his opinion hasn’t changed even after the renewal and finalization of the amended draft which received the parliament’s approval on Monday, according to tert.am

“My opinion hasn’t changed; there isn’t any need for constitutional changes, especially when it comes to this kind of drastic ones. All the problems facing the country are absolutely possible to solve within the frameworks of the Constitution in effect, whose functionality is not called into question by anyone.

“The published bill surpassed my worst expectations,” Kocharyan continued. “It’s not just about a choice between semi-presidential and parliamentary forms of government. The draft Constitution contains real risks that the country may plunge into a de facto single-party system, i.e. – a political monopoly and stagnation,” he said, drawing parallels with the Soviet-Armenian Constitution where nice wordings only legitimized the Communist Party’s political monopoly.

Kocharyan further expressed his disapproval of the proposed transition to a parliamentary government.

“I do not wish such a future to my country, so I am definitely against those changes. What’s being committed is a big error whose consequences are extremely dangerous to Armenia,” he added.