The still unpublicized draft has to be approved by at least two-thirds of the parliament’s deputies before it can be put on a referendum. Pashinian’s Civil Contract party fell short of such a majority in disputed parliamentary elections held on June 7.
The two opposition groups represented in the National Assembly have vowed to block the referendum. They remain strongly opposed to the change of the constitution which they say is imposed by Baku.
“We will try to convince our opposition colleagues that this is a very important issue,” Pashinian told a news briefing. “If that doesn’t work, we will pursue other scenarios, including the possibility of holding snap elections. Who said that such a scenario is ruled out?”
Azerbaijan makes the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia conditional on a change of the current Armenia constitution. It objects to the constitution’s preamble referring 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 only legal way to remove that reference is to adopt a new constitution.
While rejecting this precondition in public, Pashinian has pledged to change the constitution in a way acceptable to Baku. The Armenian Justice Ministry drafted the new constitution early this year.
Pashinian vowed to “focus on the process of signing and ratifying the peace treaty initialed with Azerbaijan” on October 13 four days after speaking with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of an ex-Soviet summit in Turkmenistan. He twice met with senior members of his party for that purpose in the following days.