Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov reiterated on Monday that an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal is conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which Baku says lays claim to Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We are waiting for Armenia to overcome the main obstacle in the settlement process by legally abandoning territorial claims to Azerbaijan through constitutional changes,” he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Arman Yeghoyan, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on European integration affiliated with Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, criticized Mammadov’s remarks.
“I regard that statement as an obstacle to the constitutional reforms in Armenia,” said Yeghoyan. “With such statements, Azerbaijan’s representatives, being well aware of the reaction they will generate in Armenia, want to scuttle the constitutional reforms in Armenia.”
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.
Kristine Vartanian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Hayastan alliance, insisted on Tuesday that the Azerbaijani demands are the reason why Pashinian wants to change the Armenian constitution in the first place.
“Azerbaijan wants not only a deal with Nikol Pashinian and Civil Contract but a deal with all Armenians that would be formalized by a referendum,” she said.
Pashinian and his political team deny planning the constitutional referendum at the behest of Baku. But the prime minister did say in February 2024 that peace with Azerbaijan will be impossible as long as the 1990 declaration is referenced in the current constitution.
Pashinian again made a case for a new constitution in an hour-long video address to the nation aired last week. His justice minister, Srbuhi Galian, said the next day that a government panel headed by her will “do everything” to draft it before the country’s next general elections expected in June 2026. Galian did not rule out that the preamble will be excluded from the draft.
