The “red line” was crossed when the former chair of the Constitutional Court, Gagik Harutyunyan, was forced to resign before the new Constitution came into force so that Hrayr Tovmasyan was elected to this post, the spokesperson for Armenian PM Vladimir Karapetyan told RFE/RL Armenia.

Referring to the remark that members of the Republican Party of Armenia are comparing the situation with Hrayr Tovmasyan with the Stalinist repressions, Karapetyan noted that this is a rather cynical statement.

“They did their best to elect their party comrade to the position of judge of the Constitutional Court forever,” he noted.

According to him, the Republicans are well aware that the changes that will necessarily happen in the Constitutional Court will fully expose violations of that period, and that’s why the Republican Party of Armenia tries to maintain its small influence nowadays.

When asked whether the National Security Service’s employees crossed the red line when they summoned Hrayr Tovmasyan’s daughters for questioning, Karapetyan noted that the red line was crossed when the former chair of the Constitutional Court was forced to resign so that Hrayr Tovmasyan would replace him.