As we know, there was a lot of noise following the execution of an agreement between the Matenadaran and the Hill. It was evident that the revolt headed by the not indifferent intelligentsia was growing.
At least the former director of the Matenadarn, Sen Arevshatyan, refused to give the digital copy of the precious manuscripts and old writings to foreign hands. The minister of education and science, Levon Mkrtchyan, got very angry seeing that, as it would be better for him if the head of the Matenadaran did not have so many rights, allowing him to make such decisions without consulting with them. Anyway, if Arevshatyan was going to resign, the next person to be given that position had to be someone that would agree to make that deal.
Certainly, the minister did not speak about it officially. Instead of that, he did not openly refute that there might be such deal with the Hill (according to the minister, they have submitted a letter to the Hill…). Meanwhile, a program of change was worked out and applied to change some structures in the Matenadaran staff. We believe the content of that program is the following:
1. As Sen Arevshatyan has retired and a new dirctor must be appointed, they will do their best to appoint their undisclosed representative in that position.
2. To dissolve the scientific board of “The Mesrop Mashtots Matenadaran scientific research institute of old manuscripts” (thus having short-term and long-term goals arising from it), and later replace the scientific board of the Matenadaran with a staff consisting of chinovniks (state officials).
Minister Levon Mkrtchyan will never stop short of reaching his intention and is even ready to committ the worst violations for that purpose. Now let’s discuss the facts: despite the government’s decision (Decision #1885-N) on approving the charter of the Matenadaran dated 12 – 09 – 2002, as well as the fact that it shall not be amended or altered, Mkrtchyan signed Order #455-AB on May 15, 2007. The attachment to the mentioned document is the charter of the collegial management board of the Matenadaran (the Board of the Matenadaran), a number of whose provisions contradict the RA Law on non-commercial organizations. Furthermore, it contradicts the Charter of the Matenadaran too, which, despite the bylaws, is not adopted by the minister’s order, but by the government’s decision, thus it has a higher legal status.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that there is no single word in the mentioned bylaws concerning the Scientific Board of the Matendaran. If, according to the charter that was not yet amended on May 15 the collegial management board of the institution (the Matendaran) was the scientific board of the institution, and according to the attachment-bylaws the collegial managment board of the Matenadaran is the board of the Matenadaran. They haven’t only excluded the word “scientific”, but also have fully reorganized the content of the board. It consists of 3 members nominated by its founder (the RA Government), 9 persons nominated by the authorized government body (the RA ministry of education and science), 10 persons filling administrative positions at the Matenadaran, and as well 17 persons from the scientific and research group heads and elder scientific staff members, elected at the general meeting of the Matenadaran. In order to make it clear how voting is going to take place, it is worth mentioning that most of the administrative officials of the Matenadaran are obeying the government, and from this view they don’t differ from those nominated by the ministry. Also, according to the charter existing on May 15, which was not yet amended, the director of the Matenadaran shall be elected at the general meeting of the scientific board and scientific staff of the Matenadaran, which once more shows that it is a priority issue to vote for scholars to manage the board, the importance of which was realized on the part of the government managed by prime minister Andranik Margaryan.
The minister of education and science has been so fast in realizing his ambitions that he acted as if he were blindfolded and wasn’t aware of anything, so as not to make much noise, as he violated the charter of the Matenadaran and committed other violations. Let’s talk facts again. Under the General Provisions Section (1.1) it is written that the current charter constitutes the procedures and methods of the board and executive board of the collegial management board of the state non-commercial organization, the Matenadaran, based on Articles 18, 19, 20 and the Charter of the Matenadaran (Points #23/a, 24, 25, 29/a-d). Definitely the person who wrote the charter (the basis and legal authorities) thought that no one would read it, but indeed…
We have read the mentioned provisions and articles and found out some very interesting things. The minister made an order-bylaws that consituted the procedures of forming the mentioned collegial board of the Matendaran, exceeding his powers (he didn’t have the right to do this…in the given case it is the same as the methods). In fact, the bylaws constituted the procedures of forming the board of the Matenadaran, who the members shall be, and who shall nominate and elect them, their 3+9+10+17 proportion and the general number. Pursuant to the first provision of Article 18 of the mentioned law, “The procedures of forming a state organization collegial management board and its operation, liabilities shall be defined by the charter of the organization”. In fact, by knowing well that the mentioned provision of the mentioned law had a higher legal status, and acting against it, the procedures of forming the state organization management board was constituted by the minister’s order. Meanwhile, it referred to the same article (18), thus it is presented as legal grounds for the charter. This is very shameful, and it is nothing to be laughed off.
Now let’s separately discuss the mentioned 23 a, 24, 25, 29 a-d provisions of the Matenadaran charter, which are presented as a basis for the mentioned bylaws. According to the first provision, the director shall be elected by the general meeting of the scientific board and scientific staff of the Matenadaran. Accordingly, this fact had to be reflected when basing the bylaws on the charter. Notwithstanding, according to Point 2.2/d of the bylaws, the director of the Matenadaran shall be elected by the board meeting of the Matenadaran, which, as we mentioned above, is another body that consists of bureaucrats.
Articles 24 and 25 cannot be a base for the mentioned bylaws either. Furthermore, the bylaws contradict the mentioned provisions of a document that has a higher legal status. At least, the bylaws not only are based on Article 29/a of the charter, but contradict it, according to which the scientific board shall participate in electing the director.
The other provisions (b-d) of Article 29, which are reflected as legal grounds, as well as Articles 19 and 20 of the mentioned law, concern different issues, thus they can’t be grounds for the “slight revolution” anticipated by the bylaws, i.e. for forming the collegial management board of the Matenadaran, its structure and for dissolving the scientific board.
Probably Levon Mkrtchyan understood that his order was not enough and that it was just a piece of an illegal paper, thus the ministry of education and science prepared and presented a draft decision to the government on amending the RA Government’s decision N 1885 dated September 12, 2002.
It is very strange, but the Government accepted the mentioned absurd document on June 21, 2007. Let’s bring some facts again. Pursuant to the first provision of the decision, one more point shall be added to the 20th article of the charter (Point I), according to which the ES ministry approves the structure of the institution’s board and bylaws. There is an explanation attachment to the mentioned decision, which states the following: “And the charter’s provision constituting the liabilities of the ministry does not include the liability for approving the board structure and bylaws, which contradicts the RA Law on state non-commercial organizations.” However, it does not specify the specific law provisions and articles, which we believe has been done purposely; the problem is that the law does not provide any powers on the part of the ministry to approve the bylaws, thus there cannot be any contradictions, such as the one specified in Mkrtchyan’s document, which presents the necessity to void it as an “explanation”.
Even more, pursuant to Article 19/f of the law, it is not the responsibility of the ministry to approve the procedures document (in the government’s decision this word was replaced with “bylaws”) of a state organization’s collegial board, but the responsibility of the given body (in this case it is the responsibility of the Board). This means that the government’s draft decision was prepared and later adopted in violation of the mentioned Article 19/f by taking the powers of the management collegial board.
Besides that, even if the ES ministry has the right to define the Matenadarn’s Board structure, it is an established fact that the issues of defining the connection within the Board and the structure of the Board are quite different issues. The mentioned bylaws adopted by the minister constitute the method of the Board formation.
With this draft presented to the government, the minister tried to legalize the illegal action of May 15, 2007, as well as to alter the difference concerning the existence of the Matenadaran’s scientific board in the charter and bylaws. However, this attempt was very poor; the minister has fallen deeper into illegal complications, as he has involved the government in that process as well. For the purpose of altering the mentioned difference, the government has re-stated the 23rd article of the charter with a new edition pursuant to its Decision 2. One of the changes resulting from it is that the director of the institution (the Matenadaran) shall be elected not by the general meeting of the Matenadaran’s scientific board and scientific staff (as it used to be), but by the institution’s Board meeting. Pursuant to the next provision of the decision, the word “scientific” has been taken out from Article 24 of the charter (“the institution’s scientific board”). Due to the mentioned two alternations, the scientific board of the scientific research institution has been completely taken out. What does this fact mean, that the scientific board of an important institution such as the Matenadaran, which is the primary institution of armenology, has been replaced? Do they annihilate armenology even as the authorities have declared it a primary strategic direction of science?
Both the ministry and the government have ignored the fact that pursuant to Article 7/1 of the RA Law on scientific and research аctivities, “the scientific board of a scientific organization is the collegial body, which controls and manages the scientific and research activities of the organization”. In other words, if there is no scientific board, the scientific activities of the scientific institution (the Matenadaran) will be either carried out poorly or will be realized by bureaucrats. As for them, experience shows that most of them don’t understand much about science, furthermore, they don’t have scientific, but quite other interests.
Concerning the other “explanation” in the attachment to the draft decision, it is worth mentioning that it is based on violations. According to the mentioned “explanation”, as of the date of approving the charter of the Matenadaran by the government (12. 09. 2002), the decision did not constitute the responsibilities of the authorized body (MS ministry) provided in Article 13/2 of the Law on state non-commercial organizations. It is not difficult to understand that the mentioned Article 13/2 constitutes not the ministry’s responsibilities, but the founder’s (the RA Government) exclusive responsibilities. Meanwhile to note, despite the explanations of the attachment, the responsibilities provided in Article 14/2 of the law are specified in the government’s decision dated 12. 09. 2002, particularly in the charter of the Matenadaran, which appears as its attachment (Section 3, Articles 20 and 22).
As for illegality, the most evident point is the fourth point. Thus, pursuant to this point, the 25th point of the Matenadaran’s charter is voided. According to it, “The Board members are: the scientific secretary, the heads of scientific groups and the invited members”. To stress, this is the only point in the charter, which constitutes the procedures of forming the institution’s collegial management board, i.e. the scientific board.
By rescinding the mentioned provision, dissolving the scientific board and replacing it with another body (institution’s board), the government did not make an amendment with its decision in the charter concerning the procedure of forming the institution’s board. Notwithstanding, according to the RA Law on State non-commercial organizations, Article 18/1, “The procedures of forming the collegial management board of state organizations and their operation and their responsibilities shall be constituted by the charter of the state organization”. Today the method of forming the organization’s collegial management board is not constituted by the charter, which is a violation of the mentioned requirement of the law. It is constituted only by the mentioned order of the minister, which contradicts the mentioned charter and the law, and thus does not have the legal force due to that.
Due to the fact that it contradicts the RA Law on State non-commercial organizations and fails to define the procedures of forming the board as well, the existing amended charter doesn’t have legal force. Also, the mentioned government’s decision does not have legal force due to the fact that it was adopted in violation of the requirements of the Constitution, Article 2/6 (“The other legal acts shall correspond to the Constitution and the law”), which also contradicts the RA Law on Legal Acts.
The director’s election day is July 10. The director will be elected by the Board, which will be formed based on the mentioned absurd bylaws that violate the law, but not based on the procedures, which had to be constituted by the charter according to the mentioned law.
Thus, it is clear that the mentioned board will be illegal and illegitimate, thus the director elected by it cannot be legitimate either. While being illegitimate and electing an illegitimate director, certainly the internationally recognized reputation and image of this scientific and research institution will be affected. To whose benefit is this.…
What we are talking about is the fact that the government’s above-mentioned decision, which contradicts the law and is a legal defect, was adopted a short time after the new government was formed, during just the first month of its work. As a result of the fact that ES minister Levon Mkrtchyan presented that absurd draft decision to the government and did his best for it to be adopted, the prime minister and the government appear in a very awkward situation in this pre-election year.