Shaping the narrative Armenia’s new Constitution on pause

Interesting developments are taking place around the draft of a new Armenian Constitution. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has not ruled out the possibility of publishing the text of the new constitution after the June parliamentary elections.

“I am in favor of publishing (the Constitution — ed.), but the problem is that on several fundamental and important issues related to the system of governance there are certain disagreements within the political and governmental team. I do not want us to publish this document without resolving these disagreements. However, unfortunately, elections are approaching quickly, and we plan and will try to resolve the existing issues before them and publish the document, but if we do not manage to do so, then publication will take place after the elections,” Pashinyan said.

Earlier, Armenia’s Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan also stated that the text of the Constitution is not yet ready for publication. It should be noted that about a month ago she said that the text was ready and would be published soon. At that time, Galyan prudently refrained from mentioning any specific date; however, from the context of her statements it followed that this was more likely to happen before the elections rather than after them.

It now appears that a decision has been made to postpone the publication until the parliamentary elections. At the same time, it is difficult to avoid the impression that Pashinyan’s team has not so much changed its decision as it has initially structured its rhetoric around the publication of the draft constitution in such a way as to create a kind of “window of expectation” — a managed hype that allows them to gauge public opinion regarding the differences between the old and the new basic laws.

One of the main such points is the alleged absence of a reference to the 1990 Declaration of Independence of Armenia, in which Karabakh was stated as part of Armenia. As is known, after Azerbaijan’s victory in the Second Karabakh War and the full restoration of its sovereignty, Baku announced that changing this provision of the constitution is a precondition for signing a peace agreement.

And on March 12, 2026, after months of preparing public opinion for the necessity of peace with its neighbors, Pashinyan publicly stated the following: “The new Constitution should not contain a reference to the Declaration of Independence. And I will explain why. Because the Declaration of Independence is constructed on the logic of conflict. We cannot follow the logic of conflict and build an independent state.”

Shortly afterward, information appeared in the media about a draft constitution that had leaked into the public domain, in which the reference to the Declaration of Independence was already absent. The text of the preamble, as noted by Deutsche Welle, is based on general formulations about democracy, the rule of law, and the aspiration to leave future generations a peaceful homeland. At the same time, the Armenian authorities emphasized that the text circulating in the media “is not the final document” being prepared for publication.

Here, it is not necessary to search for contradictions, since the new Constitution, as it can be assessed at this stage, differs from the old one not only in the presumed removal of the reference to the Declaration of Independence, but also in a range of other provisions. It is therefore quite plausible that other sections of the “leaked” draft were not final either.

Moreover, Pashinyan’s statement, while formulated in relatively categorical terms, should still be understood more as a political position or preference than as a formally binding decision.

We will deliberately avoid delving into other contentious issues that have been the subject of debate and speculation (such as the role of the Armenian Church or government accountability), and will proceed from the assumption that the most sensitive issue concerns territorial claims against Azerbaijan. In this context, the dual reference to the absence of the Declaration—one official, articulated by the prime minister albeit in the form of a preference, and the other unofficial, emerging from a draft text—has not led to any noticeable escalation in public discourse, nor has it triggered public protests.

It creates the impression that, having received a relatively clear and positive feedback from society regarding the new wording of the preamble, the ruling party has prudently decided to delay the publication of the draft in order to avoid providing the opposition with even the slightest material basis for various kinds of speculation and manipulation. Publishing the draft now, before the elections, would still have meant giving the opposition time to use the concrete text to amplify negative PR campaigns, and so on.

As a result, an almost ideal outcome has been achieved: society, in principle, understands that the reference to the Declaration of Independence will not be included, but there is still no physical “source of irritation.” In other words, the two issues are kept separate — first the elections, then a constitutional referendum.

Pashinyan continues to promote his peace agenda, and this agenda is being accepted by a significant part of Armenian society.