Lawyer: Samvel Karapetyan may become Prime Minister at the will of the people
ArmInfo.Samvel Karapetyan, chairman of the "Strong Armenia" party, may become the Prime Minister of the country at the will of the Armenian people.
Lawyer Aram Vardevanyan made this statement in a video message on his Facebook page, in response to statements made by representatives of the ruling "Civil Contract" party that, according to the Armenian Constitution, Karapetyan cannot be Prime Minister as he holds dual citizenship. Vardevanyan noted that, since February 12, 2026, some individuals have started actively discussing matters related to the preservation of the Armenian Constitution and the protection of its provisions, attempting to refute the statement about Karapetyan's potential nomination for Prime Minister. The lawyer recalled that it all began with Karapetyan's statement that the path to his candidacy for this position involves constitutional amendments.
In this regard, Vardevanyan noted that constitutional amendments can be implemented in several ways, with the most well-known way being a referendum. However, as the lawyer noted, the Armenian Constitution also allows for amendments to be made by a two-thirds majority vote of the National Assembly. "This mechanism was introduced in 2015 as a result of constitutional amendments, meaning that there are articles in the Constitution that can be amended easily. One such article is Article 148, which concerns the requirements for government representatives and determines who can serve as PM of our country," Vardevanyan clarified.
Speaking about how this could be implemented, the lawyer recalled how it was done in 2020. "In February- March 2020, when the main issue in Armenia was changing the composition of the Constitutional Court and terminating the powers of its president, a referendum was under discussion. However, it was canceled due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, the issue was resolved based on the initiative of one-quarter of the Armenian parliament's members, and the constitutional amendments were adopted with the support of two-thirds of the votes," Vardevanyan recalled.
He was surprised that the proposal to amend Article 148 of the Armenian Constitution, which they put forward on February 12, was criticized by the ruling authorities and their supporters, noting that a similar constitutional amendment had already been made during their tenure. "It seems like the events of 2020 never happened, even though there is a transcript of the parliamentary session and a corresponding mechanism in the Constitution," the lawyer complained.
He added that this same approach was presented by Samvel Karapetyan's "Strong Armenia" party on February 12. Thus, as the lawyer noted, it is the people of Armenia who can exercise their power through their decision "for" or "against," and these changes can be implemented through the simplified procedure he presented.