ArmInfo. Within 5 working days, the "Hayaqve" initiative collected 14.8 thousand signatures, of which 10 thousand were collected at the points located in the administrative districts of Yerevan, 4,500 in the regions, 330 signatures were collected by electronic signature, the coordinator of the initiative, Avetik Chalabyan, told a press conference on June 8, recalling that their task is to collect 50,000 signatures by August 19.
At the same time, he stated that these are data for the first week. "We have 6 more weeks, if we continue like this, we can collect twice as much. We are very grateful to all citizens and once again emphasize that this is a civil initiative, and by signing it, you do not sign for any party, because it has nothing to do with parties," Mr Chalabyan said.
He also reacted to all sorts of speculation that this initiative could lead to a new war. According to him, "Hayaqve" cannot lead to war in any way, but on the contrary, it will contribute to the establishment of peace on decent terms.
As ArmInfo previously reported, on June 20 the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of the Republic of Armenia approved the application of the "Hayaqve" initiative group to organize the collection of 50,000 signatures and submit a legislative initiative to the National Assembly. A 60-day period has been set for collecting signatures - from June 21 to August 19, 2023. The initiative group submitted a corresponding application to the CEC on June 12, in which it came up with an initiative to change the legislation, which provided for severe punishment for refusing self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh and belittling the Armenian Genocide.