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During a meeting with members of the Professional Commission on Constitutional Reforms, President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian stated that the Constitution, constitutionality and statehood aren’t just legal statements on paper and that their implementation is very important. “Countries that believe in their Constitutions and the rule of law, win. We, as a public, need to believe and live with that culture,” the President said, noting that he views constitutionality of the law from the perspective of application as well and that there are cases when there is no problem with the constitutionality of a law, but the law is premature and brought up the example of the law on property tax.

“Property tax is linked to other taxes. There is no doubt that the government needs to think about and improve the tax legislation, and people who have greater wealth need to pay higher taxes, but laws also have a social and psychological impact on people, and the law on property tax concerns many other issues. It seems as though any law is simply mathematics and about figures, but there are human lives, our country, culture and city behind that law. We need to be very careful. The supreme value for us has to be man, who also creates culture and an environment.

The law is on my desk. I can’t send it to the Constitutional Court because there is no problem in terms of the Constitution. The only thing I can do is to sign the law and attach a statement, and I did just that and explained the problems in detail. If I had the right to send the law back to the National Assembly, I would, and I would state the reasons for amendments to the law. If I had the right to a veto, I would exercise it.”

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