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Samvel Shahramanyan has annulled his September 28 decision to dissolve the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Republic, an adviser to the exiled Artsakh president revealed on Friday.

Shahramanyan signed the decree ordering the dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh's state institutions by January 1, 2024.

Shahramanyan’s adviser, Vladimir Grigoryan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in an interview that the basis for this was a subsequent decree signed on October 19 under which top officials of Artsakh's government, including the president, government ministers, judges, members of parliament, the secretary of the Security Council, law enforcement agencies, the mayor of Stepanakert, and the heads of administrative districts, "continue to hold office on a public basis, that is, without pay."

He added that the October 19 decree canceled the decree Shahramanyan signed on September 28.

"In other words, the Republic of Artsakh, the government and all other bodies in 2024, they will continue their activities after January 1," Grigoryan said.

Asked whether this interpretation could be problematic from a legal standpoint, Grigoryan said the decision was illegal from the beginning, and since then the decree signed on October 19 has been continued and a number of legal normative acts had also been adopted.

He said this "implies that the Republic of Artsakh in 2024-25 will happen, because the Republic of Artsakh is dissolved only by the people's referendum, and no person, not even the president, has such powers and rights to dissolve the republic."

He added that there was no need to wait for a new decree from Shahramanyan.