On August 12, 1996, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of Armenia presented to the Armenian Ministry of Justice a new version of the party’s statutes, recently revised by the party Supreme Assembly.

The new version of the bylaws corresponds to the Constitution and acting legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

By law, the Ministry is allowed only one month to review an appeal. The Justice Ministry failed to meet a Sept. 12 deadline to hand down a decision on the suspension of the party.

On October 1, 1996, ARF Supreme Council of Armenia Chairman Hovik Aghazaryan announced that Tigran Petrossian, vice-president of the Supreme Court, has informed him that Armenia’s Ministry of Justice has reached a decision on the reinstatement of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in Armenia. According to Petrossian, the Justice Ministry will soon inform the ARF Supreme Council of the decision.

On January 13, 1995, the Supreme Court had suspended the ARF in Armenia on an application filed on December 29, 1994, by the Ministry of Justice, on the grounds that (1) the ARF leadership bodies included foreign citizens which was a violation of the Republic’s law on Civic-Political Organizations and the law on the Legal Status of Foreign Nationals residing in Armenia, and (2) a clandestine group existed within the structures of the ARF which violated the law on Civic-Political Organizations.

The Supreme Court took into consideration only the first ground of the Ministry of Justice’s application and declined to take the second ground into consideration arguing that the issue was still under investigation and that a court had not yet ruled on the matter.

The six-month suspension was never extended by any court, although the Ministry of Justice filed an application to that effect. Thus, the government’s assertion that the ARF is still suspended by a court ruling has no legal basis.

ARF NEWS
August-September 1996
Volume 1.5(5)