By Hayk Ghazaryan
On April 15, the National Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), currently operating in exile in Yerevan, adopted a constitutional amendment aimed at preserving the office of the president. The move seeks to ensure institutional continuity following the near-total collapse of local governance in the wake of Azerbaijan’s military takeover of the region in September 2023.
The amendment was confirmed to CivilNet by Sevak Aghajanyan, chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs and a member of the “United Homeland” faction. He said the change modifies Article 168 of the Artsakh Constitution, which had previously been amended in the summer of 2023 to allow the National Assembly to elect a president under martial law.
That provision was invoked shortly before the region’s capitulation, when Azerbaijan launched a rapid offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh. The assault forced more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee their homes in an exodus widely described by international observers as ethnic cleansing. On September 9, 2023, the parliament elected Samvel Shahramanyan as president until the next scheduled election.
Those elections were expected to take place this year. However, with the region depopulated and its institutions effectively dissolved, members of the Karabakh parliament in exile have opted to prolong Shahramanyan’s term through a constitutional amendment.
Aghajanyan also noted that the parliament’s own mandate, due to expire in 2025, was extended by presidential decree about a month ago.
David Galstyan, an MP from the “Justice” faction, said the amendments were intended to preserve the legal framework of the republic and safeguard the continuity of its institutions. The bill was authored by Artur Mosiyan, head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) faction in the exiled parliament.
Several MPs refrained from commenting on the broader implications of the move, highlighting the uncertainty that continues to surround the future of Artsakh’s government-in-exile.
The Armenian government has expressed strong opposition to the establishment of any Karabakh state structures within Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has emphasized that any self-proclaimed “government” operating within Armenia’s borders is considered a national security concern. He stated, “If someone else in Armenia identifies himself as the government- this is a security issue for Armenia.”
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