The parliament deputies representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party gave no reason for their unanimous boycott of a vote on a vacant seat in the country’s highest court legally reserved for judges.
Davit Balayan, a 48-year-old district court judge, was nominated for that position during a recent national conference of judges. He overwhelmingly defeated another potential nominee who reportedly enjoyed the backing of Pashinian’s political team.
Balayan, who took the bench two decades ago, made headlines in 2019 when Pashinian supporters blocked the entrances to court buildings across Armenia at the prime minister’s urging. He was caught on camera trying to overcome government loyalists’ resistance and enter his office in Yerevan through a window.
Balayan subsequently criticized legislative changes made by Pashinian’s administration, saying that they weakened judicial independence. He reaffirmed that criticism during a parliament debate that preceded the botched vote on his candidacy.
The first question put to Balayan by pro-government lawmakers was about his take on the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. The Constitutional Court nominee said he believes that the regime change took place “by the will of the people.”
Incidentally, Balayan’s father Kim is a former Constitutional Court judge critical of Pashinian. He went on hunger strike in December 2020 to protest against Pashinian’s decision to make sweeping territorial concessions to Azerbaijan to stop a disastrous war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Earlier in 2020, Pashinian controversially enacted constitutional amendments that enabled him to significantly change the court’s composition. The vast majority of its current nine justices have been handpicked by Pashinian’s government and confirmed by the parliament loyal to it.
The government has also installed virtually all members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a powerful body overseeing Armenian courts. The judicial watchdog is now headed by Karen Andreasian, Pashinian’s former justice minister previously affiliated with the ruling party.
Over the past year, the SJC has fired a number of respected judges and launched disciplinary proceedings against others, stoking opposition allegations that Pashinian is seeking to further curb judicial independence in Armenia under the guise of Western-backed “judicial reforms.”
The SJC faced more such accusations earlier this month after circulating a video that lambastes judges presiding over the protracted trials of former senior officials at odds with the current government. An association of Armenian judges accused it of illegally intervening in the judicial proceedings.
