YEREVAN. – Faith played an important role on the Constitutional Court’s (CC) decision, and the CC remained at the top of its game.

Armenia’s opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun MP Artsvik Minasyan stated the abovementioned at Wednesday’s press conference following the CC ruling on the pension reforms.

“I express my gratitude to all citizens who helped us to properly work at the court.

“I express my gratitude also to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who could have intervened and impacted, but he did not,” he said. Minasyan also reflected on the authorities. 

“We have no enemy in this struggle. We want for this triumph to be a success toward our statehood; this is not a personal victory,” he said.

In turn, plaintiff’s attorney Meri Khachatryan called upon those from whose salaries the mandatory funded pension deductions were made.    

“You need to stand up for your rights and not allow the employers to make deductions.

“You should keep the CC decision in your hands and, if necessary, appeal to the Administrative Court if they violate your rights,” Khachatryan noted.

The CC on Wednesday deemed unconstitutional a whole series of articles in the new Law On Funded Pensions, which were contested with a lawsuit by the four non-ruling-coalition parliamentary factions. Specifically, the mandatory component of this law was invalidated.

The CC, however, gave the parliament and the government time until September 30 to amend the aforesaid law’s provisions that were considered unconstitutional. In addition, all the mandatory pension deductions which already were made shall be reviewed.