YEREVAN. – Former military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan believes that there is no age barrier for him to become a member of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) of Armenia. Jhangiryan, whom the parliament majority My Step faction intends to nominate as a candidate for an SJC member, told about this to reporters after his meeting with the My Step faction in the National Assembly (NA) Wednesday

To the remark that SJC chairman Ruben Vardazaryan, referring to the Judicial Code and the Constitution, states that there is an age limit after which the NA cannot elect the given person a member of the SJC, Jhangiryan responded as follows: "According to the same code, the former chairman of the Constitutional Court, Gagik Harutyunyan, was elected chairman of the SJC after turning 70 years old. Unfortunately, they have not studied the Judicial Code well. They should look especially to Article 186, which deals with the termination of powers and the grounds for the termination. Will you see in that article that there is an age limit for judges is envisioned in that article, aside from the restrictions in Article 112? But there is no maximum age limit for lawyer-scholars. Therefore, if someone is elected at the age of 62, according to the logic of that statement, Article 186 would have provided the basis for that automatic termination at [the age of] 65. The law is not interpreted by reading any article; the law should be interpreted in all its articles. I have specifically studied this issue. The age of 65 is not envisaged for a lawyer-scholar—either by the Constitution or by the Judicial Code.”