Armenia: new constitution and renunciation of territorial claims to Azerbaijan? Expert opinions on Caliber.Az

"The world is changing, the Republic of Armenia is also changing, therefore the need for a new constitution of the country has arisen," Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the discussion of the report on the activities of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia. According to Pashinyan, "Armenia, after all, should have a constitution adopted by the people by the results of voting, which will not cause doubts."

This is also important for us, because, as we know, the Armenian constitution, namely in the preamble, specifies territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Is it possible that Armenia will adopt a new constitution without territorial claims to Azerbaijan? Caliber.Az interviewed Azerbaijani political analysts in this regard.

“If we proceed from the Armenian prime minister's statement, he is not going to change the parliamentary system of the country, but perhaps some other elements in the constitution will be changed,” Farhad Mammadov, head of the Center for South Caucasus Studies said.

"We should realize that Azerbaijan has a lot of questions exactly regarding the Armenian constitution, where there is a reference to the Declaration of Independence, which contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Perhaps this reference will be removed.

On the other hand, the idea of a new constitution was voiced by Pashinyan back in 2021, but then it was forgotten. So we have such experience as well. Therefore, we should wait for the Armenian Prime Minister's specific actions on this issue to clearly understand what we are talking about," Mammadov noted.

According to Tofig Zulfugarov, former Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, the question we have asked is extremely difficult. Especially if we remember that Armenia has been growing its territories at the expense of Azerbaijan several times since the beginning of the last century.

"Once the Ararat Republic acquired Azerbaijani territories in the region of Goycha Lake, then Zangazur, and then started occupying our territories in the 90s of the last century, and this issue, despite the return of Karabakh, has not been fully resolved until now. And now, if Armenia really intends to change the constitution, which will not include territorial claims, the question arises, on the basis of what maps, borders and what historical period does it intend to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan?

After all, Pashinyan changed his mind several times. He either shouted that 'Karabakh is Armenia, period', or he called Armenia's 1920 borders the 'real borders' of Armenia, then he labelled Armenia's territory with reference to the 1991 Almaty Declaration, then in Granada, he started calling for the delimitation of borders on the basis of maps of the USSR General Staff. Where is the truth hidden?", Zulfugarov pointed out. 

According to him, it is also worth remembering that Armenia actually refused to recognize the provisions of the Almaty Declaration regarding the borders of Azerbaijan.

“But you cannot step into the same river twice. So, if now Armenia suddenly woke up and decided to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan after the 'Iron Fist' and because it suddenly became afraid for its security, it is not a fact that Baku should unambiguously accept and welcome such a policy. This issue must be approached extremely consistently and scrupulously, clearly understanding and defining Armenia’s manipulations in the field of border delimitation and recognition of the territorial integrity of our country. Yerevan will no longer be able to handle this issue quickly and to the maximum benefit for itself. In this sense, Azerbaijan has already given its answer in this regard, stating that it will determine its borders according to maps of different historical eras: including the maps of 1920, 1975, and 1991,” Zulfugarov noted.

At the same time, according to member of the Azerbaijani parliament (Milli Majlis) Rasim Musabayov, Pashinyan has been voicing the idea of a new Armenian constitution for a long time.

“I don’t think that Pashinyan will directly link this initiative with changing the preamble of the constitution in order to remove the reference to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, which contains claims to the sovereignty of Azerbaijan. Although it is very obvious that if Pashinyan changes the constitution, then he will have to remove this reference - if only because it constrains him in the matter of concluding a peace treaty. The fact is that ex-President Serzh Sargsyan greatly tinkered with the Armenian constitution regarding the abolition of the presidential form of government in the country, and made some clever decisions on other issues. And now Pashinyan, apparently, intends to return the presidential model of governing the country - this, obviously, is his main goal,” Musabayov underlined.

Speaking of details, Pashinyan, for example, expressed dissatisfaction with Armenia's current coat of arms - it combines elements of the coats of arms of four mythical Armenian states from the time of Tsar Gorokh, if not older, MP Musabayov said.

"Pashinyan finds such a composite coat of arms ridiculous. There are some other wishes regarding the change of the Armenian constitution after Sargsyan's sloppy edits, and this correction may help Pashinyan, but that's not the point. Anyway, the reference to the decision of the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR and the regional council of the then NKAO looks extremely absurd and Pashinyan will have to remove it. However, to what extent the draft of the new constitution will actually be realized is still unclear. But what is virtually certain is that Pashinyan's opponents, the whole revanchist army, will fall on him, accusing him of intending to eliminate Armenia's documented claims to the territory of Azerbaijan,” the MP added.