Armenian PM says EU accession law passed by parliament makes referendum unnecessary

BISHKEK, September 1. /TASS/. The Armenian law on accession to the European Union was initiated by the people, so its passing precludes the need for a referendum, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bishkek.

"To be honest, the passage of the law already signaled that the idea of a referendum was dropped, because if parliament had not passed this law back then - I would like to remind you that this law was initiated by civil society, which means that they collected signatures from Armenian citizens, as the constitution allows, and submitted this bill to parliament. If parliament had not passed this law, the initiators could have collected 250,000 signatures more, and if parliament had rejected it again, we would have had to hold a referendum in Armenia. In other words, by passing this law, we effectively abandoned the idea of a referendum," Pashinyan explained.

Earlier during the meeting, Putin called on Pashinyan to let his country's people vote on accession to the European Union and close the topic. "People must always have a choice," Putin stressed. "Well, then, make it, and we'll put this issue to rest That's all. The simplest thing to do is to ask the people, ‘What do you want?’ And that's it."