The ARF Supreme Council of Armenia headquarters in Yerevan
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of Armenia, in an statement issued on Thursday, is urging voters to ignore the Constitutional Court referendum slated to take place on April 5.
Below is the translated text of the announcement.
It is with great regret that we verify that the current political leadership, by ignoring numerous pleas and warnings, is pulling the country into reckless risk.
By exploiting and distorting one of the important tents of a democracy—the referendum—the authorities, in veiled effort, are advancing their singular goal to establish an autocracy and their inability to neutralize the threats facing the country.
By condemning the political leadership’s approach of creating artificial plans through demagogic methods, we are sounding an alarm for this unconstitutional approach. The ARF Supreme Council of Armenia announces that the leadership’s approach of addressing issues through unlawful means is unacceptable.
As such,
We call on the citizens of the Republic of Armenia to not become participant to the authorities’ routine unlawfulness and ignore the April 5 referendum, thus sending a clear message to the authorities that the people are tired of the populism and contriving plans, the destructive policy of dividing the society into “whites” and “blacks,” and the continued upheavals which, as we have seen, have not benfitted the welfare of the people and true democracy.
We call on political forces, civil society—our compatriots—urging them to put their efforts together to prevent a “Yes” vote and thwart this anti-state process and finally start implementing real reforms. The ARF will use all necessary means to this end.