He said that a new Armenian constitution planned by him must carry no reference to a 1990 declaration of independence which in turn cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The declaration is referenced in a preamble to Armenia’s current constitution. Azerbaijan says that this amounts to a claim to Karabakh recaptured by Baku in 2023. It has made clear that it will not sign an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, initialed last August, unless Yerevan removes the reference. The only legal way to do that is to adopt a new constitution through a referendum.
While insisting that the current constitution contains no territorial claims, Pashinian has pledged to try to change it. He again criticized the 1990 declaration on Friday, claiming that it could provoke another war with Azerbaijan.
“The [ruling] Civil Contract is the only political force that says there must be no reference to the Declaration of Independence in the new constitution,” he said in a video message posed on Facebook.
The new constitution is already being drafted by the Armenian Ministry of Justice. Pashinian said earlier that it will be put on a referendum after Armenia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7. This suggests that the referendum will not take place if Pashinian and his party are voted out of office.
Armenian opposition groups have pledged to scuttle the change of the constitution sought by Pashinian. They say that his continuing unilateral concessions only encourage Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to make more demands on Armenia and will not bring real peace.