YEREVAN. – International agencies are not exerting pressure on Yerevan to ratify the Istanbul Convention, and the purpose of applying to the Venice Commission is to receive a consultative opinion, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan told reporters, adding that it can be useful in the framework of public discussions.

“There was no appeal on the issue of constitutionality. Our message is that advisory opinion may be useful in the context of public discussion. The Commission will evaluate some terms. The Venice Commission’s response will be ready in October. The Istanbul Convention itself will be sent to the Constitutional Court,” he explained

As for signature campaign against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the Minister stressed that the initiative was on the part of the President of the Chamber of Lawyers, but not on the part of the entire Chamber, therefore this is an appeal of a separate lawyer.

“I advise citizens that they should pay attention to the documents they sing. I’ve learned that when people ask what they are signing they get the answer that it is directed against attempts to legalize phenomena that contradict our traditions. People accepting this explanation put their signatures,” he noted.

Badasyan added that in the case of Bulgaria, the convention was contrary to the Constitution, whereas in the case of the UK, domestic legislation is considered more progressive than what is proposed in the convention.

“If the convention is ratified, I’ll be happy to see that in a couple of years journalists will contact people who claim that there are provisions in the Convention about legalizing same-sex marriage or adopting children in same-sex couples, and they would be surprised why this has not happened, ”the minister said.

As to the remark that a number of deputies of ruling My Step faction oppose the Istanbul Convention, the Minister of Justice assured that he was ready for criticism.

“This is an artificial agenda. I see a trend to strike the authorities from different sides and through various comments, and most of them are artificial,” he noted.

The minister said that the Convention puts the fight against violence at the institutional level.

“If a woman is subjected to domestic violence, before contacting law enforcers, she must be sure that they would approach her statement with full responsibility. The Convention also provides for training of law enforcement officers. As for the term “gender”, I cannot give a domestic example and explain it. The term was introduced in 2013, and nothing new is introduced,” he added.