Category: 2020

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Suren Papikyan crudely violated the procedure for campaigning for the referendum. This is what human rights activist Ruben Melikyan wrote on his Facebook page, touching upon the speech that Suren Papikyan gave during the question-and-answer session with government officials in parliament today.

He particularly wrote the following:

“Acting ex officio, as member of the Government of Armenia, and participating in the procedure prescribed by Article 112 of the Constitution of Armenia (question-and-answer session between deputies and members of government), Suren Papikyan directly carried out the YES campaign for the referendum for constitutional amendments from the podium of the National Assembly.

The possible “explanation” that this happened after the end of the working day (after 6 p.m.) and that this means campaigning was permitted, is completely groundless because if a person acts ex officio (as an official), as in this case, the day or hour doesn’t matter. We state that this is a crude violation of the Constitutional Law “On referendum”. We also state that opposition MP Gevorg Gorgisyan gave an adequate evaluation of the fact.”

Turkey is neutral in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), and therefore, it objectively can’t play any positive role. This is what the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh declared in response to the request to comment on the statement that Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu made during his meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

“It is a fact that Turkey is an ally of Azerbaijan. Since the origin of the Artsakh movement in 1988 and throughout the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh, Turkey has supported Azerbaijan. Moreover, in April 2016, Turkey overtly supported the military aggression that Azerbaijan had unleashed against Artsakh, contrary to the calls of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and, in general, the international community to immediately terminate the military operations,” the clarification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh reads.

According to the official Stepanakert, Ankara’s policy of unconditional support to Azerbaijan not only contradicts the status of Turkey as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, but also undermines the efforts of the international intermediaries targeted at the ultimate settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh.

Villagers of Armenia’s Vayots Dzor, Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces are boycotting the upcoming referendum for constitutional amendments, and farmer Tigran Yeghoyan confirmed the news today.

According to him, over the past two years, there are 20% more villagers with loans, and all the actions of the government are making the farmers lose hope again. “The problems with water supply haven’t been solved due to the activities of the hydroelectric station, veterinarians still receive low salaries, while ministers are already receiving tremendous amounts of money, and the government isn’t raising these issues. Nikol Pashinyan continues to destroy Armenia’s villages, offend villagers and implement programs for the unification of communities to pursue political goals. Taking into consideration the fact that the villagers don’t receive state support, I call on them to boycott the referendum for constitutional amendments, which has served as another occasion for more tension in the villages,” he stated.

In his turn, former Member of Parliament Lernik Aleksanyan stated that more than half of the problems in the agriculture sector are linked to organization of labor by the State and villagers and that this has been going on for 30 years now.

The referendum for making amendments to an article of the Constitution of Armenia is scheduled for April 5. The authorities offer early termination of the powers of 9 members of the Constitutional Court, including the president of the Constitutional Court, referring to them as representatives of the former “regime”. Almost all political parties, except for the ruling My Step Alliance and former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s Armenian National Congress political party have refused to participate in the referendum. The referendum will succeed, if more than half of voters say YES to the amendments and if there is at least a quarter of voters on the voters’ list (650,000 people).