YEREVAN. – The Armenian citizens are very little interested in the constitutional amendments; the problem is not the Constitution, but rather the constitutionalism.

Vice chairman of the board of the opposition Heritage Party, Armen Martirosyan, stated the above-said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In his words, around 90 to 95 percent of the Armenian body politic opposes the proposed constitutional reforms, and therefore the authorities have no choice but to resort to fraud and to intimidate members of election commissions.

“By completely eliminating the system of elections, the authorities in Armenia have left us solely the squares and the streets,” Martirosyan stressed. “Tonight at 6pm, we will hold an assembly of disobedience [at Liberty Square in capital city Yerevan], and try to stop the reform of the Constitution in this way. (…) But we favor an exclusively peaceful disobedience.”

He added, however, that even though they will not resort to clashes, each and every person has the right to self-defense.

The referendum on Armenia’s constitutional amendments will be conducted on Sunday.

Pursuant to the proposed amendments, the country will make a transition from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system of governance, and conduct completely proportional parliamentary elections.

The opponents of these amendments, however, consider them to be primarily the authorities’ attempt to hang on to power.