Aliyev reiterated that this remains his precondition for signing an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty finalized last year.
“And I think that there is a great deal of, so to speak, mutual understanding between the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan about what needs to be done and in what sequence,” he told a panel discussion held during an annual international security forum in Munich, Germany.
The Armenian government did not react to the statement as of Monday evening.
Baku specifically wants Yerevan to remove a constitutional preamble that mentions Armenia’s 1990 declaration of independence, which in turn cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The only legal way to do that is to adopt a new constitution through a referendum.
Pashinian and other Armenian officials maintain that the reference does not amount to territorial claims to Azerbaijan. They also claim that the issue has not been on the agenda of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations.
Nevertheless, Pashinian has pledged to enact a new constitution that would not cite the 1990 declaration. He said in September that it will be put on a referendum after Armenia’s next general elections due in June. His justice minister, Srbuhi Galian, plans to have the new constitution drafted by the end of March.
Armenian opposition groups have pledged to scuttle its enactment. They say that Pashinian’s continuing unilateral concessions only encourage Aliyev to make more demands on Armenia and will not bring real peace.