ArmInfo.President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan said at a meeting with representatives of a number of television companies that he does not intend to run for president in 2020.
He stressed that he will participate in the elections only as an ordinary citizen who must elect a new president of Artsakh. At the same time, Sahakyan assured that this statement is not a dictate of the times, but the result of a conscious decision emanating from the value system of the Armenian people and the need to create a democratic and civilized statehood. "Since presidential and parliamentary elections will be held simultaneously in Artsakh, I, as head of state, will take all necessary measures within my legal powers to conduct free, fair and transparent elections," Sahakyan summed up.
It is noteworthy that Sahakyan made such a statement long before the presidential elections, it is possible that this is due to the recent internal political unrest in Artsakh, which, according to the Artsakh experts, have become aftershocks of the changes that have occurred in Armenia.
According to ArmInfo sources in the Artsakh government, despite the fact that the participants of the recent protests in Stepanakert basically put forward social demands, nevertheless, more in-depth analysis showed that the people, inspired by the events in Armenia, also expected political and personnel changes. This was the reason for the resignation of the state minister of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan and the heads of the Police and National Security Service.
If the resignations of the law enforcers in Artsakh were expected and occurred at the request of the people, the dismissal of Harutyunyan's post was in some ways a surprise, since there was no such issue on the agenda of protesters.
However, as Artsakh analysts note, leaving of Araik Harutyunyan from his post was the first step in the way of smooth transfer of the power steering wheel to him by Bako Sahakyan.
According to the information available to ArmInfo, at present Arutyuyan is preparing to get elected to the parliament through the majority system, where the "Free Motherland" party he leads has a stable majority. It is possible that after the election, Harutyunyan, taking into account his parliamentary majority, will head the Artsakh parliament, thus creating a political basis for the start of the presidential campaign.