Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: According to the information of Zhoghovurd daily, the decision of the Constitutional Court on joining the Rome Statute has become a real scourge for the CC [i.e., ruling Civil Contract Party] members.

As is known, the RA Constitutional Court decided on March 24 that Armenia's accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court complies with the basic law [i.e., the constitution] of the country.

The problem is as follows: According to the regulations of the Rome Statute, no amnesty or pardon can be applied to persons prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, and the Hague Court had issued an arrest warrant for the RF [(Russian Federation)] President [Vladimir Putin] on March 17. It turns out that by joining the Rome Statute, the RA is obligated to comply also with this decision of the Hague Court.

After the Constitutional Court [of Armenia] has determined the constitutionality of the document, the Rome charter or statute must still be ratified by the NA [(National Assembly) of Armenia]. That means that the ball is [now] in the [Armenian] parliamentarians' court.

The thing is that the CC members are now afraid of this decision of the Constitutional Court, they are thinking of options on how to maneuver from this, especially since Moscow has reacted quite harshly to this and warned of "extremely negative consequences of this for bilateral relations.”