Former Artsakh defense minister Samvel Babayan, whose candidacy for today’s Artsakh presidential election was rejected on residency grounds, issued a statement claiming Baku had contacted Artsakh authorities and threatened to “use force” if the election took place.

Babayan said he was told this at a meeting yesterday of local political forces in Stepanakert.

Despite this claim, Artsakh’s parliament elected, without any such incident, Samvel Shahramanyan as president replacing Arayik Harutyunyan who resigned from the post on September 1.

Shahramanyan, the sole candidate for the post, served as Artsakh NSS director during the presidential tenure (2007-2020) of Bako Sahakyan.

His nomination was rejected because he didn’t meet the ten-year residency requirement and thus could not be considered a citizen of Artsakh.

Babayan, on behalf of the United Motherland parliamentary faction that nominated him for president, congratulated Shahramanyan as the fifth elected Artsakh president.