Azerbaijani aggression disrupted the election process in Armenia. Daniel Ioannisyan in the OSCE

Yesterday, on September 27, Daniel Ioannisyan, Programs Coordinator of the Union of Informed Citizens, gave a speech at the Human Dimensions Conference of the OSCE/ODIHR, the topic of which was the elections.

The video recording of Daniel Ioannisyan’s speech and the Armenian text are presented below.

«Today, as we are discussing issues related to democracy and elections here, some of the member states are actively making efforts to undermine and discredit these values.

First of all I mean Russia. Its imitation of referendums in the Ukrainian regions of Zaporozhye, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk gives rise to many problems, among which I would like to mention the discrediting of the institutions of plebiscite and self-determination of the people.

With regard to Armenia, where I come from, I would like to point out that for a long time Russia and some local groups had actively been campaigning against democracy and democratic values. According to the provisions of that propaganda campaign, the emergence of security issues and other problems in Armenia was because of the establishment of democracy.

However, contrary to that propaganda, in 2021, Armenia was able to successfully resolve the political crisis through democratic elections.

Nevertheless, regretfully, not all the processes related to the elections in Armenia are satisfactory.

In particular, there have been cases of criminal prosecutions against some of the representatives of the opposition who won the local elections at the end of last year, which, despite having grounds, sometimes dangerously coincided chronologically with those people winning in the elections.

We do not rule out the possibility that those individuals have really committed the crimes they are charged with but we call on Armenian authorities not to base decisions on initiating criminal prosecutions against individuals on political convenience.

Ladies and gentlemen,

On this Sunday, local elections were held in a number of communities in Armenia. The main obstacle to the normal course of those elections was the recent unprovoked aggression by Azerbaijan against the internationally recognized sovereign territory of Armenia and Armenian towns and villages.

Although the disruption of the election process was not the gravest damage caused by the Azerbaijani aggression, our long-term observers recorded that the political parties in almost all communities stopped the campaign and could not properly present themselves to the voters.

Local elections were also held in the Sisian community, which was directly targeted by the Azerbaijani aggression. Here, in addition to the disrupted campaign, residents of two villages had been evacuated during the Azerbaijani attack, which had a significant impact on the elections».