Samvel Babayan blames court for unwillingness to consider his citizenship claim

A court in Stepanakert has postponed the consideration of the lawsuit lodged by Samvel Babayan, a former commander of the Defence Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), who demands to restore his citizenship. The court session was postponed for the eighth time, since the court doesn't want to consider his lawsuit, Mr Babayan is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in February 2019, Samvel Babayan, a former NKR's Defence Minister, announced his intention to run for the NKR presidency. On February 25, Babayan demanded clarifications from NKR's law enforcement bodies, stating that he had been deprived of his citizenship.

A session of the administrative court on Babayan's claim to restore his citizenship against the visa division of the NKR's Police was held on December 19 in Stepanakert. The court postponed the consideration of his claim until January 23, 2020, Vladimir Pogosyan, an activist of the public initiative for collecting signatures in support of constitutional amendments, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, the court has postponed the consideration of Babayan's claim for eight times, starting from May 23, 2019.

On that day, December 19, Samvel Babayan posted a statement in his Facebook page, in which he noted that he had "no shadow of doubt ... about this outcome," and the Constitution adopted in 2017 had been drawn up "for one person, in favour of his eternal rule." Mr Babayan has stated that he "had returned and doesn't intend to remain silent", and that "he'll certainly go all the way towards his participation in the presidential and parliamentary elections."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 20, 2019 at 05:01 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.