YEREVAN, October 14. /TASS/: Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed the law adopted by the parliament on ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to the relevant information published on the leader’s website.
"On October 13, Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed the law on ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," the statement said.
The Armenian parliament voted on October 3 to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC. Sixty deputies voted for the decision, while twenty were against it. The Armenia and I Have Honor opposition factions, which boycotted the discussion of the issue, returned to the session hall and voted against it. They stressed that the adoption of the document has nothing to do with the interests of Armenia and pursues geopolitical goals.
Moscow called Armenia's accession to the Rome Statute an absolutely unfriendly step. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, the ICC, which some time ago issued arrest warrants for representatives of Russia's top leadership, has nothing to do with justice, but is a politicized pro-Western structure that carries out orders to prosecute figures undesirable to the West. Galuzin pointed out that these arrest warrants are "absolutely legally null and void."
In turn, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan is not changing its foreign policy vector. He noted that the issue of ratification of the Rome Statute is in no way directed against Russia and was launched before the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to him, the Rome Statute provides an opportunity to regulate relations with individual countries on a bilateral basis.
