News - Newspaper: Under what circumstances President signed decree ending Nagorno-Karabakh existence?

Hraparak daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: The former commander of the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] DA [(Defense Army)], Samvel Babayan, announced that he is starting a process against canceling the decree of President Samvel Shahramanyan. Based on his [Babayan’s] statements, a criminal case was initiated under the articles of official military negligence and "handing over the means of warfare to the adversary." No charges have been filed at this time. The RA authorities will keep this case hanging over the head of Artsakh's military-political leadership like a sword, so that no one would think of starting actions against [Armenia’s PM] Nikol Pashinyan. As for the decree signed by Shahramanyan on September 28, by which the NK [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] state structures are being dissolved, the Artsakh Republic ceases to exist as of January 1, Shahramanyan has not yet clarified the circumstances under which he signed it. It is only known that before that he met with the former presidents of Artsakh within the framework of the SC [(Security Council)] meeting. Our sources say that before signing [it], Artsakh leaders discussed it and know that it has no legal force—it is unconstitutional, as the president of Artsakh cannot dissolve, let’s say, the judiciary, and only the people can dissolve the republic through a referendum. In fact, it [the decree] was forced to be signed under [Azerbaijani president] Aliyev's threats that the Azerbaijani military forces would not enter [Artsakh capital] Stepanakert and the population would be allowed to leave. And why does Aliyev need a decision that has no legal force? We were told for the use of propaganda purposes. In fact, it is also used by Pashinyan and his [poetical] team for propaganda purposes—putting the surrender of Artsakh into the "pockets" of Shahramanyan and others. Now, when the representatives of the Artsakh authorities gather at the Artsakh representation in the RA, Pashinyan, fearing possible developments, puts new weapons into use against them.