“[Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev’s constitution cannot be adopted in Armenia,” said Narek Karapetian, the parliamentary leader of the Strong Armenia alliance. “The leader of a neighboring country cannot dictate our constitution.”
He said that although the text of the constitution drafted by the Armenian government early this year has still not been published, even the “scant” information about it released by Pashinian’s political allies is “very concerning.”
The ruling Civil Contract lacks a two-thirds majority in the Armenian parliament required for putting the draft on a mandatory referendum. Pashinian threatened on Thursday to stage street protests in a bid to secure the missing votes from Strong Armenia and the other opposition bloc, Hayastan.
“If this scenario also fails, we will head to snap elections on the condition that there is a 100 percent guarantee that the current parliamentary opposition will not be in the next parliament,” he warned.
“Our people have given us a mandate to prevent the adoption of Aliyev’s constitution,” countered Hayastan’s Anna Grigorian. “It is simply impossible to expect us to vote for the text of the constitution so that it can be put to a referendum.”
Karapetian rejected Pashinian’s threats more implicitly. He said his bloc headed by his billionaire uncle Samvel Karapetian is undaunted by “public pressure” threatened by Pashinian.
“If we see that we must stand like a wall before our adversary, what can that pressure achieve?” he told journalists. “A large part of our society exerts a different kind of pressure [on the opposition] -- pressure to ensure we don’t take the bait offered by our adversary.”
Karapetian also pointed out that Pashinian admitted earlier this week that he does not know whether the change of the constitution sought by him would certainly be enough for Baku to sign an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty initialed in Washington last year.
“When I get the answer to that question I will come out and make clear whether or not I guarantee that,” the premier told a news conference on Thursday.
“Even if he produces some document stating that the treaty will be signed following the change of the constitution, it cannot constitute a genuine or fair guarantee because the Armenian people have witnessed how the Pashinian-Aliyev duo has devised numerous schemes detrimental to Armenian interests,” said Grigorian.