Referendum needed on key issues, ex-minister says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia lacks an officially adopted state approach on fundamental national issues, Reformists party lead candidate Vagharshak Harutyunyan has said.

He believes that nationwide referendums should be held on issues such as “the genocide and the Karabakh question,” according to Factor.am .

“We do not have a state approach on fundamental issues adopted as an official document. History passes, and later people ask whether the decisions made were right or wrong and on what basis they were taken. Right now, the Armenians of Artsakh are a very serious problem for us,” he said while responding to a journalist’s question about the rights of Armenians from Artsakh.

The former Armenian defense minister also stressed that “we cannot say such an issue does not exist.”

“I propose that nationwide referendums be held on issues such as the genocide and the Karabakh question. Based on that, the state, taking into account the will of our citizens — and we say power belongs to the people — must develop a program on how we resolve the issue of the Armenians of Artsakh and the Karabakh issue. There are so many questions here that remain unanswered.

I have repeatedly said what kind of situation we are currently in, because we have no diplomatic relations with either Azerbaijan or Turkey, and that itself is an element of war. Our border is closed, and from the standpoint of international law, that is also a form of war. We have a peace process where a peace agreement has been initialed, but at the same time, we see territorial threats being voiced against Armenia. If high-ranking leadership makes territorial claims against a state, that is a military threat. And if it is a military threat, then you develop your security program accordingly — how we determine the size of our army, our armaments, and our budget.

This must be connected to the threats we face. So this is a very serious issue, and the initial answer should come from our society, not only regarding the Karabakh issue, but also the genocide and other historical questions,” Harutyunyan said.