ArmInfo. The Hayaqve initiative has reached an important point. Avetik Chalabyan, coordinator of the initiative, announced this at a press conference on December 1.
He stressed that on December 4, the draft law on amendments to the Criminal Code will be officially discussed in the National Assembly, in which the majority of seats belong to MPs of the ruling Civil Contract party. "They do not hide the fact that they intend to fail the presented document in order to close the Artsakh issue forever, handing it over to the enemy on paper. They also set the goal of forever abandoning international recognition of the fact of the Armenian Genocide, turning Armenia into a Turkish crossroads," Chalabyan noted.
The coordinator of the initiative called on all signatories to defend their homeland, Armenian Artsakh, and the people's right to compensation for the Armenian Genocide. "Today it is very important that we once again show our determination and unity in order to defend our rights in this non-national National Assembly," Chalabyan said, calling on citizens to gather in front of the parliament building on December 4 at 10.00am.
On October 11, the Hayaqve initiative group officially introduced a bill on the criminalization of the transfer of Artsakh to Azerbaijan and the refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide to the National Assembly of Armenia on the parliamentary agenda. As ArmInfo previously reported, on June 20, the RA Central Electoral Commission (CEC) approved the application of the Hayaqve initiative group to collect 50,000 signatures and submit a legislative initiative to the National Assembly, and in case of rejection by the National Assembly, 300,000 signatures. 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 the initiative to change the legislation, which provided for severe punishment for refusing self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh and belittling the Armenian Genocide. The collection of signatures has been completed; a total of 58 thousand signatures have been collected.