We are guided by the institutional approach, not the personal one. This is what deputy, Chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia Vladimir Vardanyan told reporters today, touching upon the My Step faction’s constitutional amendments bill.

“The parliament is discussing the issue of neither Hrayr Tovmasyan nor any other judge. It is discussing the institutional approach. I won’t give any names. If anyone tries to view this as a personal approach, it is more than absurd because we are only guided by the logic that the dispute over the Constitutional Court is at the institutional level,” he said.

The Armenian parliament passed, in the second and final reading, the draft amendments to the Constitution. A total of 89 MPs voted for the bill.

The opposition Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia factions were not participating in the sitting.

According to the said amendments, the Constitutional Court judges who have been in office for 12 years and more shall be removed from office, while the current president of the court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, will continue to be a judge of the court, but no longer as its president.

Earlier, the Venice Commission said in a statement it regrets that a proposal for constitutional amendments was introduced in the Armenian Parliament on the day of the adoption by the Venice Commission of its opinion.

According to Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric, "the constitutional crisis in Armenia can be solved with the Venice Commission’s guidance."

"I invite all authorities to be guided by the Venice Commission recommendations to overcome the constitutional crisis through smooth implementation of the relevant provisions of the 2015 Constitution and in accordance with Council of Europe standards," she concluded.