Presidential candidate of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) Ruslan Israelyan has made a proposal to make a joint call to all the presidential candidates of the Republic of Artsakh to declare a state of emergency in Artsakh and postpone the elections, and at 7 p.m., the candidates mentioned below have responded and made a joint statement.

This is stated on the Facebook page of Ruslan Israelyan.

At this moment, Masis Mayilyan, Sergey Amiryan, Kristin Balayan and Ashot Dadayan have joined the statement.

The joint statement particularly reads as follows:

“The latest information on the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic is strictly troubling, and this brings us to the conclusion that holding nationwide elections in these conditions poses great risks.

We unequivocally positively assess the measures that Armenia has taken to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, including the declaration of state of emergency and postponement of the scheduled referendum. We believe Artsakh also needs to take similar measures since Artsakh and Armenia have a common security environment.

We also believe that, in this extraordinary situation, the authorities of Artsakh need to show will and be resolute and only be guided by public interests. They also need to declare a state of emergency and take all measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic as much as possible and postpone the elections; otherwise, they will have to be held liable for the future developments.

If there are certain forces that are sure that they will unconditionally win the elections, their desire to hold elections in such troubling conditions is much more doubtful and it first and foremost jeopardizes that certainty.

Once again, we call on the authorities to be sound and give an adequate evaluation to the situation and make a decision with a sense of responsibility, that is, declare a state of emergency and postpone the elections.

If the authorities fail to be responsible and aren’t willful and resolute to take immediate measures, the public will have to assume responsibility and take appropriate measures for public oversight over prevention of the spread of the pandemic during the electoral period. We candidates are willing to do our best to contribute to public oversight.

This also means that if the authorities decide to hold the elections at any price, the lawfulness of those elections will be questioned.

We also urge the authorities of Armenia, which are the guarantor of the security of Artsakh, to take adequate measures in Artsakh.”