Samvel Babayan's Initiated Petition is Problematic, Says Armenian MP

Samvel Babayan's petition initiated in Artsakh, a citizen of Armenia, presents a constitutionally problematic issue from a legal standpoint, according to Vladimir Vardanyan, the Chairman of the Permanent Commission on State and Legal Affairs of the Armenian National Assembly. He made this statement during a briefing with journalists on July 14 in the National Assembly of Artsakh, as reported by Artsakhpress.

“If a citizen of Armenia is granted the right to be elected in Artsakh, then they must also be granted the right to vote. Thus, it follows that all citizens of Armenia could potentially have the right to vote in Artsakh elections. It is hard to tolerate a situation where citizens of Armenia, who outnumber the population of Artsakh, decide what authority should govern in Artsakh. To limit oneself to merely passive electoral rights, as proposed by the initiators, means embarking on a campaign against legal principles. In the case of only conferring passive electoral rights, that candidate would not have the opportunity to vote for themselves. This approach is unacceptable from a legal perspective,” Vardanyan stated.

He added that politically, there is a need to emphasize the importance of the international legal status of Artsakh. According to him, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should not be viewed as a situation in which we have a unified entity comprising both Artsakh and Armenia, where processes occur that do not highlight the international legal status of Artsakh.