Today, Coordinator of the Hayakve initiative Avetik Chalabyan and Authorized Representative Aram Petrosyan summed up the first week of the signature collection.
Avetik Chalabyan noted that 14,800 people took part in the signature collection in five days. Ten thousand of them were from Yerevan, 4500 from provinces. Three hundred and thirty people signed online.
“This is a civic initiative. It’s highly important for us that every participant of the signature collection becomes the messenger of the Hayakve initiative and presents the importance of joining the initiative to the rest of our citizens,” said Avetik Chalabyan.
He noted that Azerbaijan’s reaction to the initiative was very strong. Almost all Azerbaijani media companies referred to Hayakve. The Armenian authorities have provided some obstacles for the initiative as well. Chalabyan mentioned that they tried to frighten people by using the photo of Nairi Hunanyan taking part in the signature collection. They blame the initiative for the Azerbaijani provocations on the border.
Authorized Representative of Hayakve Aram Petrosyan said that they came across several obstacles during the week as well. The initiative members were not allowed to run awareness campaigns in the administrative districts of Avan and Malatia-Sebastia.
“They say that we hinder the greening work. The municipality employees have been ordered not to participate in the signature collection. We even have information that in one of the municipalities, the cleaner was dismissed from her job. We have had some problems with electronic signatures. RA citizens, living abroad, are not able to sign with their ID cards. Now, we are trying to settle that issue,” he said.
According to the members of the initiative, if they keep up the pace, twice the number of the necessary signatures will be collected within the next six weeks.
