The Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia has rejected the examination of the petition submitted by the opposition "Strong Armenia" and "Armenia" Factions of the National Assembly (NA), challenging the constitutionality of the decision by the NA to approve the government program which envisions the dismissal of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II.

The aforesaid decision was challenged in its entirety, on the grounds of violation of the prescribed procedure for its adoption, and in terms of content, to the extent that by that decision, the NA approved several points of the government program, which make the actions related to the internal canonical governance of the Armenian Apostolic Church a state policy goal, as a result of which violating both the Church's and people's freedom of conscience and religion.

In its argument for the rejection of examining the aforementioned petition, the CC states that the provisions of the government program themselves cannot be the subject of constitutional oversight, since they do not have normative content. These are political statements that acquire legal significance only as a result of further law-making activity, and therefore the decision approving that program also cannot be the subject of constitutional review insofar as it concerns the substantive provisions of the program, the CC added.

It concluded that the aforesaid petition does not provide the minimum level of justification necessary for the CC to examine the constitutional and legal matter on the merits under which conditions the examination of this case is subject to rejection on the grounds provided for in the Constitutional Law, the CC added in its decision.