Publication: Deception. Do you want Tsarukyan to become the President of Artsakh? Sign here

The newspaper "Publication" writes: "For about two months, former commander of the Defense Army of Artsakh, Samvel Babayan, who applied to participate in the presidential elections in 2020, has been collecting signatures in Artsakh to propose amendments to the Constitution to the Parliament. In particular, changes to the citizenship norm will allow citizens of the Republic of Armenia to also have the right to be elected and elected as candidates in the presidential and parliamentary elections of Artsakh, which would enable Samvel Babayan to present his candidacy.

The initiating group proposes to set the requirement for candidates to be that any citizen who has been a citizen of the Republic of Artsakh and/or the Republic of Armenia for the last 10 years and has resided in Artsakh or the Republic of Armenia for the last 3 years can be a candidate. Only after this amendment will Samvel Babayan be able to run in the presidential elections of Artsakh.

It has been reported for a considerable time in the media that the signature gathering is proceeding with violations, with citizens participating using Armenian passports, and sometimes individuals who signed in one community sign in another as well. Many participants in the signature gathering seem to be unaware of what they are signing for. There were even reports that elderly people thought that the signature gathering was to raise pensions and social benefits, and so on.

For several days, a video has been circulating in Artsakh's online groups where a woman and man from Artsakh narrate how people associated with Samvel Babayan presented it as a signature for Gagik Tsarukyan to become President of Artsakh and unite Artsakh and Armenia. Artsakh resident Roza Mghdesyan recounts, "They came to our house yesterday, entered, and said it was for the election so that Gagik Tsarukyan would come and become President here, uniting Armenia and Artsakh; respecting Gagik Tsarukyan, I agreed, I did not know it was for something else." The woman shared her joy with her son in the evening, stating that Tsarukyan would soon be their president, but her son disappointed her, saying, "That’s not for Tsarukyan; I will ask that what I wrote be considered invalid, as I do not agree." Another character in the video mentioned that he received 30,000 AMD and said, "I later found out that they deceived me; they collected for something else, I am not saying what, but let them not deceive us, we want to live peacefully and quietly."

It should be noted that Samvel Babayan's struggle is against Araik Harutyunyan, one of the most prominent candidates for the presidency of Artsakh. Recently, Babayan stated on Armenian television that "Even if all of Artsakh turns upside down, Araik Harutyunyan will not be president." More details are in today’s newspaper issue.