"DISCUSSIONS ORGANIZED IN YEREVAN CONCERNING NKR PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTIONS ARE ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE ELECTION RESULTS," ARMAN MELIKIAN,
ADVISOR TO NKR PRESIDENT, BELIEVES

YEREVAN, JULY 4, NOYAN TAPAN. The discussions organized in Yerevan
concerning the forthcoming presidential elections to be held in the
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, moreover, on the initiative of an
organization, which is financed by a third country (Russia), are
inadmissible. This statement was made by Arman Melikian, the advisor to
the President of Nagorno Karabakh, at the July 4 press conference,
taking into consideration the round table organized the previous day on
the initiative of the Kovkas analytical center. In his opinion, it
casts doubt on the possibility of making a free choice at the best, and
is an attempt to influence and foresee the results of the forthcoming
elections at the worst.

In response to the question of how it happened that the President of
the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh was making a speech in the Slavonic
University at the same moment, A. Melikian said: "One should not
mistake a bicycle for a tank, as, in difference to the analytical
center, a university is an institution, which has no political
purposes." In addition to this, he believes that two of the experts of
the Kovkas analytical center are the supporters of one of the
candidates for the post of the President of Nagorno Karabakh, which
speaks about "the fact of direct and open intervention."