Pashinyan calls on Armenians to write a new Constitution

In a recent statement, Nikol Pashinyan has reiterated the need for a new Constitution of Armenia. The head of the Armenian government has emphasized that today the Armenian people consider the current Constitution to have been created and introduced by the ruling elite, rather than citizens of the country.

Peace Treaty with Azerbaijan

In an interview with a correspondent of the website Vestnik Kavkaza, political analyst Igor Korotchenko, General Director of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies (Russia), directly linked Nikol Pashinyan’s statement with the need to remove territorial claims against Azerbaijan from Armenia’s Constitution, in order to sign a peace treaty with Baku.

«I believe that Pashinyan’s call for writing a new Constitution is directly related to the issue of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, given that Armenia’s current Constitution contains a reference to a number of documents, including the Declaration of Independence, which stipulate territorial claims to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh economic region. Concluding a sound peace treaty without appropriate changes to Armenia’s Constitution is unlikely, and making amendments [to those documents] would require a referendum», said Korotchenko.

«Baku’s standing is that any details in Armenian legislation that could be used by Yerevan in the future to break the peace treaty or declare it legally void must be eliminated. Therefore, Baku demands that Armenia’s Constitution should be amended by all means; otherwise, the conclusion of a peace treaty just would be impossible. Pashinyan’s statement made today may well reflect the intentions of Armenia’s incumbent political leadership to respond one way or another to Baku’s demand and submit constitutional amendments to a referendum», noted Igor Korotchenko.

«For some time lately, Nikol Pashinyan has been actively promoting a thesis about ‘real Armenia’ as opposed to «historical Armenia», the political analyst emphasized. «At the end of the day, Armenia’s incumbent leadership have an understanding that it is necessary to abandon historical chimeras, exaggerated and imaginary greatness, which is largely mythologized, and to become a normal country. As Pashinyan has stressed, this urge is supported by the majority of Armenian citizens. Therefore, if Armenia brings the Constitution in accordance with the norms of international law and renounces territorial claims against its neighbors, it will take a big step towards building a civilized state based on the rule of law, which is responsible for its policy», added Korotchenko.

«If this does not happen, it is quite possible that future leaders of Armenia may one way or another disavow the agreements with Baku, which Nikol Pashinyan is capable of reaching in the foreseeable future. The Azerbaijani authorities are fully aware of that, and, therefore, invite their partners to take this circumstance into account on the negotiation track», concluded Igor Korotchenko.