YEREVAN. – The President had considered the Prime Minister's proposal to dismiss the chief of General Staff unconstitutional and had returned the proposal on that basis. Ara Zohrabyan, Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates of Armenia, stated this during Saturday’s demonstration in front of the Ministry of Defense building, and in support of the Armenian army and the chief of its General Staff, Onik Gasparyan.

"Now the President, instead of fulfilling his constitutional duty and transferring this dispute to the Constitutional Court, says, 'I will not sign the decree.' If he does not sign the decree, it is the same as signing the decree; the decree is considered to have entered into force. Now, if the President does not petition to the Constitutional Court, it turns out that he is pushing for these issues to be resolved in the street, in an unconstitutional way.

We propose the following action plan: From here we go to 26 [Marshal] Baghramyan [Avenue, the office of the President], other citizens will join us there, and we demand a meeting with the President of the Republic of Armenia.

If he avoids the meeting, we will try to march to his place of residence. We have one demand from him: to petition to the Constitutional Court with a demand to recognize the Prime Minister's proposal to dismiss the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces as conflicting with the Constitution," said Zohrabyan.

He added that if the President does not receive them, they will try to discuss why he is afraid of a meeting with them.

"From here we head for [Marshal] Baghramyan [Avenue]—not by march, but by car," Zohrabyan said.

And with that, the picket in front of the Ministry of Defense building ended.