ArmInfo.The Armenian Ministry of Defense responded to the statement of the former commander of NKR Defense Army Samvel Babayan , that by Armenia's Defense Ministry's direct order the NKR officers were made sign a document forbidding them to participate in collecting signatures and meeting with various personalities.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in an interview with the ArmInfo correspondent that if such a document was signed by the NKR military, it still fits into the framework of laws and the Constitution, which prohibits the participation of military personnel in political processes. "We only welcome this initiative of the NKR Defense Army and do not understand the essence of Babayan's objections, who, I am sure, is also aware of these norms, if only because he himself headed the Defense Army," Hovhannisyan said, adding that from the point of view of the Armenian Defense Ministry, such a measure proceeds from the direct interests of the two Armenian states, and there is no legal problem or violation of the law here, as Babayan insists.
To note, former commander of NKR Defense Army Samvel Babayan, running for the presidency of the republic in 2020, said that the leadership of the NKR Defense Army gathered officers and forced them to sign a document prohibiting them from participating in election meetings and collecting signatures, and all this happens by instruction of the Defense Ministry of RA. Samvel Babayan organizes the collection of signatures to amend the Constitution, the corresponding article of which prohibits candidates who have not lived in Artsakh for 10 years from running for president.