Representatives of Assyrian community declare that law "On the  administrative-territorial division of the RA" ignores interests of  national minorities 

ArmInfo.The new law "On the Administrative-Territorial Division of the Republic of Armenia" does not provide for provisions that ensure the interests of national  minorities.

Thus, the legislator ignores the interests of national  minorities. This was stated by representative of the Assyrian  community of Armenia Irina Gasparyan on September 22 at the  parliamentary hearings on the enlargement of the communities of the  republic, initiated by the Standing Parliamentary Commission on  Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and  Environmental Protection of the National Assembly.

To recall, on September 8, the government approved a package of  amendments to the law "On the administrative-territorial division of  the Republic of Armenia" and "On local self-government", according to  which, as a result of the unification of 441 communities in Armenia,  there will be 37 communities. The enlargement started in 2016 and as  a result of the unification of 486 communities have already created  54 enlarged communities. After the completion of the entire process,  there will be 77 enlarged communities in Armenia, not counting  Yerevan. The process will not affect the six communities of Armenia,  where representatives of national minorities live.

Thus, according to Gasparyan, as a result of the already implemented  community enlargement program, two villages of the RA - the village  of Dimitrov (Artashat district of Ararat region) and the village of  Nor Artagers (Armavir district of Armavir region) are on the verge of  extinction. In this regard, a representative of the community  inquired about the reason for ignoring the interests of national  minorities in the course of drafting the document.

According to another representative of the Assyrian community,  Zemfira Mirzoeva, the RA Police provided the Ministry of Territorial  Development and Infrastructures with incorrect data on the number of  representatives of national minorities. "How can nationality be  determined solely on the basis of the surname, or, if the mother is  Armenian, then the nationality is determined without taking into  account the opinion of the child's parents?"

Gava of the Kurdish community, MP from the "Civil Contract" faction,  Knyaz Hasanov, in turn, urged not to include in the program of  community enlargement those populations where national minorities  make up the majority.

Deputy Minister of Territorial Development and Infrastructure Vache  Terteryan, first of all, urged to refrain from using the term  "discrimination", since the authors of the project put the interests  of all RA citizens, regardless of nationality, at the forefront. As  the Deputy Minister pointed out, the legislator only temporarily  refrained from enlarging a number of communities, since the process  in practice promises only positive developments for the residents of  the area. In addition, as he pointed out, the administrative-  territorial division concerns only the management process, and in no  way affects the cultural, national authenticity. At the same time, in  his opinion, the legislator can refer to issues related to the  cultural autonomy of national minorities in other regulatory legal  acts.

To note, on September 8, at a government meeting, Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan said that there is a decision of the Constitutional  Court that holding a local referendum on this issue is  unconstitutional and consolidation as a political process will be  decided only in the area of the National Assembly - the government.  The political decision has already been made, the prime minister  said. "It is clear that an attempt should be made to heat up passions  where possible. I want to ask our dear compatriots to urge them not  to succumb to such sentiments," Pashinyan said.