“If we assume that Azerbaijan's position regarding our constitution is not an excuse but a sincere concern, the most effective way to dispel that concern is not to not sign the treaty but to sign it,” he said.
Baku has made clear that it will not sign the treaty finalized by the two sides last month unless Yerevan removes a constitutional 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.
Pashinian again cited the Armenian Constitutional Court’s September 2024 conclusion that the reference does not amount to territorial claims to Azerbaijan. He also argued that the constitution stipulates that international treaties signed and ratified by Armenia take precedence over any of its articles.
“This means that the peace treaty will gain supreme legal force after ratification in Armenia as well as in Azerbaijan,” he told the Armenian parliament. “Therefore, with its current position on the peace treaty, Azerbaijan is hindering the resolution of the issue raised by itself, and this is what gives many experts reason to say that Azerbaijan is simply delaying the signing of the peace treaty under fabricated pretexts.”
The Azerbaijani leadership has repeatedly reaffirmed this precondition since the two sides ironed out last month their differences on the text of the draft treaty. Despite rejecting it in public, Pashinian has pledged to try to enact a new constitution through a referendum. But such a vote is very unlikely to be held before June 2026.
Armenian opposition leaders maintain that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has no intention to settle the conflict before clinching further concessions that would prelude Armenia’s very existence as a viable state. They say that Pashinian’s appeasement policy has only encouraged Aliyev to make more demands on the Armenian side.