Armenia denies having territorial claims against Azerbaijan in constitution

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has denied Azerbaijani accusations that the Armenian Constitution contains territorial demands against Azerbaijan. 

Azerbaijan wants Armenia to change its constitution because the document’s preamble contains a partial reference to the Armenian Declaration of Independence adopted on August 23, 1990, during the USSR. The declaration, in turn, mentions the joint decision of the Armenian SSR and the Supreme Council of Nagorno-Karabakh of December 1, 1989, about the unification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh. “It could seem to be a substantial argument, however, article five of the declaration says that the Republic of Armenia, in order to ensure its security and inviolability of borders, shall create its armed forces, internal troops, state and public security bodies subordinate to the supreme council. But when in 1995 the Armenian Constitution was adopted, ever since, and even before that, all security and law enforcement bodies in Armenia were subordinate to the President of the Republic, and are now subordinate to the government after the 2015 constitutional changes. This means that the provisions of the Declaration of Independence are reflected in the Constitution literally and verbatim, which is also a very important provision of our legal regulations, in order to understand the laws and texts,” Pashinyan said.

He said that the Armenian Constitution does not contain any territorial demands against Azerbaijan.

“This is a case similar to the November 9 trilateral statement, when an attempt is made to attribute something to the Armenian Constitution which isn’t written there and doesn’t exist.”

Article five of the Armenian Constitution says that in case of of conflict between the norms of international treaties ratified by the Republic of Armenia and those of laws, the norms of international treaties shall apply.

He explained that after Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a peace treaty, the norms of the peace treaty will apply. 

In turn he accused Azerbaijan of having territorial demands against Armenia in its constitution. Pashinyan explained that the 1991 Azerbaijan Constitution Act is the foundation of the Constitution of Azerbaijan, which cites the 1918 declaration of the first republic of Azerbaijan which says that Eastern and Southern Transcaucasia are parts of Azerbaijan. Furthermore, during the 1919 Paris peace conference and to the League of Nations the same year, maps that were presented for registration of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan included Armenia’s Syunik and Vayots Dzor provinces entirely, as well as some parts of Ararat, Armavir, Gegharkunik, Tavush, Lori and Shirak Provinces. 

“This makes it obvious that Azerbaijan’s constitution contains territorial claims against Armenia. It is important to note that we don’t make a topic of negotiations out of this, we don’t raise this issue because we have an agreed upon provision in the peace treaty draft which says that none of the parties can cite its national legislation as a justification for non-fulfillment of the given international treaty terms,” Pashinyan said, adding that Armenia doesn’t raise the issue of the territorial claims in the Azeri constitution in order not to bring the peace process into deadlock and because the peace treaty text addresses that issue entirely.