Artsakh President Bako Sahakian meets with the National Security Service

Artsakh President Bako Sahakian on Thursday held a series of meeting to address the government’s continued efforts to contain the Coronavirus, no cases of which have been reported in Artsakh, and to discuss Tuesday’s concurrent presidential and parliamentary elections.

Sahakian visited Artsakh National Security Service on Thursday and in a meeting with its leaders he discussed complex measures taken by his government to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.

The safety of the population during Tuesday’s elations was high on the agenda of discussion. He focused on the efforts of the national security structures aimed at ensuring the state’s and people’s security, protection of every citizen, as well as protecting the interests and rights of voters.

Sahakian emphasized the importance that during the upcoming elections the national security services take all steps to secure the health of the population, saying the participation of national security personnel would greatly enhance the efforts to conduct a successful election and ensure the safety and health of Artsakh citizens during this global health crisis.

In another meeting, this time with leaders of government-aligned political parties represented in the Artsakh Parliament, Sahakian urged them to utilize their organizational structures to ensure the safety and health of citizens are not compromised during the elections, by pointing out the specific steps of the state’s plans on the Coronavirus issue.

In particular, Sahakian urged that special attention be paid to all preventative measure in place and ensure that sanitary and hygiene rules are followed in the days leading up to the election to avoid the spread of the Coronavirus in Artsakh.

Sahakian also discussed measures the parties can take to confront challenges in the event that cases of the Coronavirus are reported.

Meanwhile in Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during Thursday’s cabinet meeting that all observers heading to Artsakh from Armenia to monitor the elections will be tested for the Coronavirus.

“Today we already have rapid test kits for diagnosing the novel coronavirus. Let’s agree to cooperate with the observer organizations, understand whether the observers are from risky zones or not. If yes, we should ask them to replace the observers. And also, those who are going to visit Artsakh, would be tested, so that we can be convinced that they are not infected,” said Pashinyan emphasizing that no cases of the Coronavirus have been reported in Artsakh yet, although dozens of people have been tested.

Pashinyan said everything must be done to avoid the bringing COVID-19 to Artsakh by the election observer mission.