20th Anniversary of Constitutions: Insight into the Past

• 09.24.2015, 17:26
•  EEU,  "Armedia" and the world,  Armenia

Armenia and Kazakhstan celebrate the 20^th anniversary of their Constitutions. Through what processes have these countries passed and what changes were made in the Constitutions? This is what was discussed during the round-table in Yerevan on "2015- 20 Years of the Constitutions of Armenia and Kazakhstan".

The round-table discussion was held in the framework of the project "Armenia-Kazakhstan: Cooperation Platforms" implemented by NGO "European Integration" with the support of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Armenia.

The speakers of the round-table discussion were the envoy-adviser of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Armenia Zhalgas Adilbaev, Director of the CIS institute in Armenia Aleksander Markarov, orientalist Naira Mkrtchyan, senior advisor of the president of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Anahit Manasyan and the president of the NGO "Integration and development" Aram Safaryan.

During the round-table the processes of the adoption of the Constitutions and their amendments were discussed.

The principle of the equality of the civilians and public consent were mentioned as peculiarities of the Constitution of Kazakhstan. "It’s also due to our Constitution that we go forward with big steps," the representative of the embassy said, emphasizing that more than 130 nationalities live in harmony in Kazakhstan and their rights and equality are guaranteed by the Constitution.

Aram Safaryan said that Kazakhstan is one of the unique post-soviet countries that had neither ethnic and religious, nor political conflicts during the 23 years of independence. "Kazakhstan due to its Constitution and strong power is an example of stable and powerful country," Safaryan said.

As for the constitutional changes in Armenia, the speakers mentioned that the establishment of the parliamentarian republic has always been thought to be an important step forward towards the democratization of Armenia.

The milestone of the 1995 Constitution was strong state power - in 2005 it was announced and fixed in the Constitution that the core of the state is the individual. "The draft project of the Constitution keep this idea and we think it’s one of the most important points in it," Anahit Manasyan said.

Aleksander Markarov mentioned that in average the life of Constitution is 20 years so maybe it was time to change our Constitution. "Constitutional changes are an endless process, it’s a process of perfection," Markarov said.

Naira Mkrtchyan spoke about the tradition of the constitutionalism of Armenians and Kazakh people.