Nagorno-Karabakh leaders in Yerevan declare dissolution of republic invalid

A document cancelling the decree on the dissolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has been released with a call to “stop speculations” concerning the liquidation of the unrecognized state. Nagorno-Karabakh lawyers and activists argue about the legal force and appropriateness of the mentioned document.

On May 14, Armenian media and public figures made public a document cancelling the decree on the dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh. The new decree retracting the decision on dissolution, like the very decree on dissolution from September 26, 2023, was signed by the President of Nagorno-Karabakh Samvel Shakhramanyan.

The document, which, in particular, was published by Nagorno-Karabakh lawyer Roman Yeritsyan, was signed by Nagorno-Karabakh President Samvel Shakhramanyan in Yerevan in October 2023. From the moment of its signing until May 2025, the mentioned decree with the number 659-N was not published, but now it has been published “with the demand to immediately stop talking about the dissolution of Artsakh (the self-name of Nagorno-Karabakh),” the lawyer wrote on his page in Facebook*.

The lawyer has added that formally both decrees – on the dissolution of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and on the cancellation of this decision – have no legal force, contradict the Constitution and other laws of Nagorno-Karabakh, and have not entered into force.

Nagorno-Karabakh lawyer Roman Yeritsyan has called on his fellow countrymen not to discuss the dissolution of the republic anymore and “not to consider the Artsakh (the self-name of Nagorno-Karabakh) page closed due to the territorial loss.” The lawyer has mentioned that for 30 years in Azerbaijan, municipal authorities of the Karabakh communities were preserved, which in fact did not control the situation on the ground. “We will get ours back,” Roman Yeritsyan stated.

The published document signed by President of Nagorno-Karabakh Samvel Shakhramanyan “lacks an assessment of the genocide and loss of the homeland by the population of the Republic of Artsakh,” believes lawyer Rafael Martirosyan. “The decision of an official recognizing the legal act he previously adopted as invalid is legitimate,” the lawyer noted.

Nagorno-Karabakh public figure Marat Yeganyan, who launched the “Arcakhinfo” project, has expressed the opinion that “in order to annul the decree on the dissolution of the republic, MPs should have appealed to the Supreme Court.” “Apparently, they did not have the will to do that,” Marat Yeganyan believes.

Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians will be able to return to the region only as a result of a military victory, which the Armenian side is unable to ensure, and “everything else is just empty words,” states Tigran Petrosyan, the head of the Nagorno-Karabakh “Tomorrow’s Artsakh” Party.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Information Headquarters has noted that “the so-called decree on the dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh (the self-name of Nagorno-Karabakh) was signed in a very difficult situation created by the large-scale offensive of Azerbaijan,” and it was aimed at ensuring the opening of the only road to Armenia for the safe evacuation of residents.

“This document was unconstitutional and also contradicted the Law of the Republic of Artsakh ‘On Normative Legal Acts’. <...> The so-called decree, as a document, was not included in the single website for the publication of normative legal acts and was not officially published,” the Nagorno-Karabakh Information Headquarters announced.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 16, 2025 at 02:46 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

*On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.