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The Armenian National Assembly is holding hearings on the legislative changes proposed by the Hayakve ballot initiative which call for criminalization of Artsakh’s recognition as part of Azerbaijan.

The draft law submitted by Hayakve would also criminalize any government decision to stop campaigning for international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.

The hearings, which started on Friday morning, have been called by the opposition Hayastan faction. Its head, Seyran Ohanyan, stressed the importance of the legislative initiative amid the complicated military political situation facing Armenia and Artsakh.

"The geopolitical and regional developments, the current security environment, especially the daily increase in internal and external challenges, make it necessary for the civil society to fully focus on discussions on such pivotal issues in an effort to cope with the current difficult situation," Ohanyan said.

The lawmaker blamed the Armenian government's “incompetent” policies for the loss of Artsakh and its ethnic cleaning by Azerbaijan in mid-September.