Thursday, October 10 2019 12:56

ArmInfo.The participation of Artsakh Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan will give the presidential election in the republic a competitive character. In this sense, his  decision to nominate his candidacy contains additional opportunities  in this direction. A similar opinion was expressed by ArmInfo  Chairman of the International Center for Human Development Tevan  Poghosyan.

Artsakh Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan announced on his Facebook  page a decision to run for the upcoming presidential election in  2020. According to him, the adoption of this decision was prompted by  discussions with citizens, representatives of public and political  circles of Artsakh, as well as government and political circles of  Armenia, national figures of the Diaspora.

"One of our main problems in the past was the presence of one main  favorite in the elections. In this light, many people of Artsakh were  not very aware of the essence and importance of the elections as a  way of forming power. It all came down to the election of one person  who was given a non-alternative character.  Today, how we see that  the situation has changed - competitive elections are coming,  however, it will be up to the Artsakh people to decide in any case,  "he stressed.

At the same time, Poghosyan refrained from expressing an opinion  regarding the candidates' chances of winning. According to him, the  pre-election regrouping is yet to come and it takes time to determine  the degree of support for candidates by one or another political  force.

According to the expert, associating candidates with the former or  former authorities of Armenia and Artsakh is fundamentally wrong and  primitive and more inherent in the realities in Armenia than in  Artsakh. So the same incumbent Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan  previously spoke from the position of an oppositionist, however,  Vitaly Balasanyan also once spoke with similar positions regarding  Bako Sahakyan.

"In this light, the presidential and parliamentary elections expected  in Artsakh must be looked at with a new look. It is necessary to  assess not the candidates's past, but their programs, approaches and  concepts of the republic's development. The candidates's  team and  its composition are also important. Accordingly, we need to look at  the elections in Artsakh not through the prism of signals from  Yerevan, but through the prism of the "content" of the candidates  themselves, "the expert summed up.

In addition to Masis Mayilyan, the leader of the Free Homeland party  Araik Harutyunyan, former Defense Minister Samvel Babayan, and former  Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic Vitaly Balasanyan  announced their intention to participate in the elections.