Armenian lawmaker calls on Azerbaijan to sign peace deal as soon as possible

A senior Armenian lawmaker on Thursday called on Azerbaijan to agree upon a date and venue for signing the peace agreement.

Armenian Member of Parliament Sargis Khandanyan, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations, during a press briefing, reacted to Azeri presidential envoy Elcin Amirbekov’s statement calling on Armenia to speed up the process by making constitutional changes, a baseless precondition that Baku has been voicing. 

“In order not to miss the chance of the peace agreement Azerbaijan must swiftly propose a location and date for signing it and agree it with us. Regarding the demand of constitutional changes or viewing it as a precondition, this is illegitimate. Armenia has numerously said that its constitution doesn’t contain any territorial claims against any neighbor. But even if it did, the text of the peace agreement would entirely resolve that matter,” Khandanyan said.

He said that constitutional amendments are a matter of domestic politics in Armenia. “Our political force considers it necessary to adopt a new constitution, but that new constitution doesn’t have anything to do with the content of the peace agreement,” the MP said.

Asked whether or not Armenia prepares to speed up the process, Khandanyan said, “No, no such issue is discussed. As we said, the draft of the new constitution will be ready before the 2026 parliamentary election. Since the law doesn’t provide for the opportunity to hold constitutional referendum together with elections, probably it will be held after the parliamentary elections.”

Azerbaijan has been falsely accusing Armenia of having territorial claims against it enshrined in its constitution. These accusations have been denied multiple times by Armenian officials. 

The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan announced on March 13 that the negotiations around the peace treaty have been successfully concluded. The Armenian government has expressed readiness to start discussions with Azerbaijan around the date and location for signing the agreement.  Meanwhile, Azerbaijan made preconditions for signing it, including a demand to change the constitution by falsely claiming it contains territorial claims, as well as disbanding the OSCE Minsk Group. Baku also launched a fake news campaign falsely accusing Armenia of border shootings.