Former Foreign Minister: Armenian authorities lack mandate to change  Constitution, target Church, and violate sovereignty

ArmInfo.  The citizens of Armenia did not grant the Armenian authorities a mandate to amend the Constitution, launch attacks against the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), or violate the country's sovereignty. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, Vardan Oskanian, stated this in a  video published on his Facebook page, reacting to the results of the  recent parliamentary elections in Armenia and subsequent events.

Oskanian noted that while he has observed various electoral  processes, he has never seen such a poor election in every sense of  the word. According to him, several circumstances made these  elections particularly bad. First and foremost, the former Foreign  Minister pointed out that these elections took place at a time when  Armenia has already existed as an independent state for 35 years.  "Secondly, they were held under a leadership that came to power  promising it would not tolerate any infringements on the free  expression of the people's will. For these two reasons alone, they  can be called the worst," Oskanian stated.

The former minister drew attention to the fact that while violations  had occurred during past electoral processes in Armenia, they were  not applied on such a massive scale. For instance, Oskanian noted  that there had never been such open utilization of administrative  resources, including state budget funds.  "Therefore, all of this  must be banned; an appropriate law must be passed to prevent the  authorities from introducing new programs six months or a year before  an election that were not budgeted for. After all, it is obvious that  all of this is done exclusively to secure citizens' votes—essentially  constituting an electoral bribe meant to influence their choice,"  Oskanian believes.

If this process is not stopped, the former MFA chief warned, the  country will remain trapped in this recurring cycle. "As a result,  this administration will be re-elected time and time again. We need  to reflect on all of this. In my view, these elections do not  represent the true will of Armenia's citizens. By my estimates, the  actual share of votes for 'Civil Contract' does not exceed 30–40%.  They obtained all remaining votes through the abuse of administrative  resources. This is the result of direct manipulation of the election  outcomes. In reality, this government does not command 50%+1 of the  votes, nor does it hold a 3/5 majority in parliament," the former  Armenian Foreign Minister stated confidently.

According to him, this means that the citizens of Armenia did not  grant this government a mandate to amend the Armenian Constitution.  "Just as they did not give a mandate to encroach upon the AAC. And  they did not give a mandate to cede even a single centimeter of  Armenian land to Azerbaijan—meaning, to violate Armenia's  sovereignty. This is a very serious circumstance. This government  lacks the legitimacy to take such steps. Meanwhile, we possess  national, legal, and political grounds to resist the further actions  of these authorities by all possible means within the framework of  the law and the Constitution," Oskanian concluded.