The Referendum Agenda is Destructive: Statement by the Republican Party of Armenia

The Republican Party of Armenia has issued a statement, noting that “the referendum scheduled for April 5 is unconstitutional, illegal, and anti-democratic. The entire process of initiating the referendum, in both its content and procedure, grossly contradicts the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and the constitutional law on the 'Regulations of the National Assembly,' while the political context of the question has no relation to the guiding principles of building a legal state and strengthening democracy.

The sole purpose of this adventure is to have a compliant Constitutional Court, which will not only fail to resolve the numerous real issues facing the citizens of the Republic of Armenia but is also another step towards undermining the statehood.

The agenda of the referendum is destructive. It is an occasion to divert the public from more important issues and to hide the failures recorded by the authorities. We, acknowledging the above and not wishing to participate in the destructive process of further dividing society by Nikol Pashinyan and his political team, declare our decision not to participate in any way in the campaign for the unconstitutional referendum.

At the same time, we regret to signal that the reaction of the international community indicates that this process is unworthy of a member state of the Council of Europe, damaging the international reputation of the Republic of Armenia, the repercussions of which will be severe in the context of advancing the national agenda of the country and exacerbating regional challenges, as well as weakening Armenia's position in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations.”