Lawyer Ruben Melikyan has issued a statement saying: “Dear compatriots,

You are already aware that a group of lawyers have initiated a public defense of the “NO” referendum on the constitutional amendment dated 5 April.

We have repeatedly stated that the referendum initiated by the political authorities is unconstitutional both in content and in procedural terms. But unfortunately, the referendum was still scheduled, and now it is becoming a “de facto” reality.

Thus, in addition to the seriously contested constitutionality and legitimacy, there is also an objective issue of fairness of the appointed referendum.

As already stated, the main goals of our initiative are:

1) Enable RA citizens to have access to the arguments justifying both “Yes” and other options of “Yes” exclusions.

2) To give the citizens of the Republic of Armenia and the international community the confidence that the voting results have been monitored and appealed.

We are confident that our initiative is in the interest of the Republic of Armenia. We will do our best to avoid a sharp confrontation between the “YES” and “NO” parties. We will make every effort to eliminate the vicious phenomena of dividing the public into colors and hatred during this time.

We realize that we can be the target of criticism by both the government and the opposition, but for us the interests of the state is more important than the harshest criticisms of the artificial and temporary nature.

Thus, we announce that an initiative group of 61 lawyers has already been formed, and on 18 February at 9:00 am we will present the necessary documents to the RA Central Electoral Commission.

PS: It is noteworthy that 61 lawyers joined our initiative. It should be noted that Article 61 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia guarantees the fundamental rights to apply to international judicial and human rights bodies.

INITIATIVE GROUP.”