Former Nagorno-Karabakh MPs make legislative amendments to preserve state institutions

On Tuesday, ahead of the last president of Nagorno-Karabakh’s term that ends in May, former MPs from the region convened a session to regulate the issue of the president’s continued tenure through legislative amendments. In response, Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party called the move ‘extremely unacceptable’.

‘This change will simply provide an opportunity not to lose the state institutions, as well as the president’, Metakse Hakobyan, a former MP from the Nagorno-Karabakh Parliament, told RFE/RL.

According to the amendments, there will either be an election to choose a new president or the last president, Samvel Shahramanyan, will be allowed to remain in office — but no decision has been made yet as to which option will be chosen.

The preservation of state institutions is aimed at keeping the issue of returning to Nagorno-Karabakh on the agenda, not at forming a government in Armenia, RFE/RL quoted Hakobyan as saying.

Hakobyan told News.am that 30 former MPs took part in the session and that the amendments were adopted unanimously.

The move has received a negative reception from Armenian authorities, who had previously been hostile to the proposals to form or keep a Nagorno-Karabakh government-in-exile, warning it could be used by Azerbaijan as a pretext to take military action against Armenia.

Yerevan warns of ‘ticking time bomb’ as Nagorno-Karabakh government-in-exile debate rages

A row between the Armenian Government and former officials from Nagorno-Karabakh is continuing over attempts to form a government-in-exile out of Yerevan. On Monday, the leader of Ardarutyun, a political party from Nagorno-Karabakh, told RFE/RL that anyone who opposed the continued functioning of Nagorno-Karabakh’s state institutions supported the ‘destruction of Artsakh’s [Nagorno-Karabakh’s] statehood.’ Similarly, in a thinly veiled attack on the Armenian Government last week, a group of

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Civil Contract MP Hasmik Hakobyan called such a move ‘extremely unacceptable’, vowing that the ruling party would plan their steps depending on the future steps of former officials from Nagorno-Karabakh.

RFE/RL wrote that Hakobyan demanded from the former authorities of  Nagorno-Karabakh to hand over their building in Armenia — which hosts their branches of office and where they held the session to Nagorno-Karabakh refugees — for use as housing.

After Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, forcing the region to surrender, Shahramanyan issued a decree to dissolve the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and all of its state institutions by 1 January 2024.

Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians subjected to hate speech following their ongoing protests

The protests are against the government’s decision to cut state support covering rental costs.

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