The Constitutional Court on Friday paved the way for parliamentary ratification of the ICC’s founding treaty signed by Armenia in 2004. It said the treaty does not run counter to the country’s constitution.
The ruling came one week after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine. Legal experts believe that a possible recognition of the ICC’s jurisdiction would obligate the authorities in Yerevan to arrest Putin and extradite him to The Hague tribunal if he visits the South Caucasus country.
It remains unclear whether Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government will submit the treaty to the National Assembly for ratification. Armenian law gives it up to three months to make such a decision.
Armen Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party, said its parliamentary group has not yet discussed the issue. He did not rule out the possibility of putting the ratification process on hold.
“Armenia will do what is required by its national interests,” said Khachatrian. “We must take into account the fact that the Russian Federation is our strategic ally and we have strategic treaties with Russia. The whole world understands that.”
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian called for the ratification when he spoke to journalists last week before the announcement of the Constitutional Court ruling. Simonian said Armenia must be able to appeal to the ICC over “war crimes” committed by Azerbaijan during and after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Opposition lawmakers warned, meanwhile, that Pashinian’s administration risks further damaging Russian-Armenian relations which they believe are critical for Armenia’s national security.
“Given the existing circumstances, Armenia had a perfectly legitimate excuse to not even raise the [ratification] issue,” said Gegham Manukian of the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Another Hayastan lawmaker, Andranik Tevanian, claimed that Pashinian engineered the court ruling to try to “please the West” at the cost of “ruining Russian-Armenian relations.”
“A rhetorical question arises here: by what right can the Armenian people expect assistance from Russia after Nikol Pashinian has taken an obvious anti-Russian step, trying to please the West?” Tevanian said in a Facebook post. “Who will pay the price for all this?
Most of the current Constitutional Court judges have been installed by Pashinian’s political team. The government asked the court to pass judgment on the ICC treaty in December.
Russia has long been Armenia’s main ally and trading partner. Relations between the two countries have soured in recent months because of what the Armenian government sees as a lack of Russian support in the conflict with Azerbaijan.