Despite that, I tried to find out some information from the political parties of Karabakh. Nowadays, the Karabakh government is busy discussing the Constitution of Karabakh. Member of the “Free Homeland” party and Karabakh National Assembly MP Gagik Petrosyan said: “The press conference hosted by the president of Karabakh was the reason for all the commotion. After all, we were dealing with the reputation of Karabakh. During the conference, Ghukasyan announced that he is not going to run for president the third time, despite the fact that the Constitution (I don’t doubt that it will pass) will give him that right. It’s clear that Karabakh is still on the path towards democratization; it’s been on that path since 1999 and the locomotive for democratization is A. Ghukasyan. I also believe that if the same opportunity was given to the rest of the leaders of CIS countries (the chance to run for president the third time), then they would immediately take advantage of that opportunity. It’s still a big question as to who is considered to be the real leader of democracy among the presidents of the CIS countries. With that said, the Western countries (democratic ones) would do the right thing by calling out ‘Everyone, everyone, everyone: attention”.
As for representative of the ARF central committee of Artsakh Arthur Mosiyan, he has a positive opinion about the president’s announcement and believes that he did the right thing at the right time because “the words spoken by chief prosecutor of Karabakh and leader of the constitution draft working group of the National Assembly Armen Zalinyan may have left people with different interpretations and perhaps make it risky for Karabakh to have an image of a democratic country.” He hopes that the future events will progress democratically.
Head of the “Democracy” faction Vahram Atanesyan is of the opinion that it’s not right to make interpretations about the president’s announcement. “What I mean are the sub-texts of some political parties regarding the president’s announcement and the tendency to jump to conclusions, which has already been done. We can express our attitude towards what the president said. In this case, I can say that I actually expected to hear that from the president because the current president was the one who liberated the Karabakh state, democratized the country and created institutions of a civil society. We have always been of the opinion that the president can’t do anything anti-constitutional. According to our faction members, this is unique out of all the post-Soviet countries, especially in a region like the Southern Caucasus-we have a president who is announcing a year before the elections in a civilized manner that he is planning to let someone else come to power.” According to head of the faction, it’s very important that all the political parties of Karabakh help the president accomplish the goal that he set forward in his announcement on October 11. “First and foremost, it’ s important that the Constitution of Karabakh gets passed democratically and then the new president gets elected during free and fair elections. Our faction doesn’t find it necessary to make any predictions, conduct surveys, especially the way that it is being done in Karabakh and believe that after the approval of the Constitution, the president must consult with the political parties and some NGOs, make a final decision and the society of Karabakh will have the right to vote in fair elections,” added V. Atanesyan.
Deputy leader of the “Movement ‘88” party Gegham Baghdasaryan said that his first impression of Arkadi Ghukasyan’s announcement was positive, but then after he analyzed it, he came to the conclusion that “it’s merely the continuation of a diplomatic game”. “First of all, the constitutional clause stating that he has the right to run for president the third time is still in effect. Secondly, I don’t see any change in the president’s behavior after hearing that announcement. What’s more, the same thing is going to happen under the veil, especially since Ghukasyan continues to say the same thing: ‘If the Constitution gives me the opportunity…’ So, he’s still leaving some room for him. In any case, I think that the president’s announcement is a big victory because this is the first time since the declaration of going through democratic reforms that the people of Artsakh found ways to have an influence on the higher authorities of Karabakh,” says G. Baghdasaryan.