Epress.am News from Armenia
The Russian Federation does not respect the stipulations of the Armenian-Russian interstate agreements or the territorial integrity of Armenia, said a statement by the Union of Informed Citizens NGO, referring to the Russian General Prosecutor’s response to MP Zaruhi Postanjyan’s letter. The response stated that Russian soldier Valery Permyaov, accused of the murder of the 7 members of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, could not be handed over to Armenian law enforcement due to Article 61 of the Russian Constitution and Article 57 of the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters, because he is a citizen of the Russian Federation. Currently, Valery Permyakov is being kept at the 102-nd Russian military base in Gyumri.
The Union of Informed Citizens notes that the first part of Article 61 of the Russian Constitution states that a Russian citizen can not be subject to extradition or be handed over to another state when on Russian territory.
“The 1995 agreement on “Russian Military Base on the territory of the Republic of Armenia” and its other successive agreements clearly imply that the 102nd military base is located on the territory of the Republic of Armenia and nowhere in those agreements does it ever note that the military base’s location belongs to the Russian Federation. Thus, murder suspect Valery Permyakov is not on Russian but on Armenian territory; therefore, the Russian Constitution’s limitation does not apply here.
In addition, the statement made by the Russian side implies that Valery Permyakov is currently in Russia. Which means that, according to the Russian General Prosecutor, the 102nd military base is the territory of the Russian Federation,” stresses the statement.
The authors note that the 102nd military base is the territory of the Republic of Armenia, where the Russian Constitution does not have authority. Furthermore, none of the agreements put the condition of the Armenian Constitution’s authority over the military base into question.
“The main regulations of the military base’s activities are given by approximately 10 Armenian-Russian interstate agreements, which are superior to the Armenian legislation. Hence, Armenian laws work on the Russian military base partially, however no one has revoked the power of the Armenian Constitution on that territory.
Moreover, since the Constitution of Armenia has supreme legal force in Armenia, in no way can the range of its power be reduced or be revoked ‘in certain cases’,” says the statement by the Union of Informed Citizens.
The Russian 102nd military base soldier Valery Permyakov is charged by Armenia’s Investigative Committee for murdering 7 members of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri and was arrested on January 13th near the Armenian-Turkish border and was handed over to the Russian military base by Russian border guards. The latter stimulated a protest of thousands of people in Gyumri demanding his transfer to Armenian law enforcement.