Pashinyan believes new constitution must not contain reference to Declaration of Independence, ‘but it’s up to the people to decide’

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday he believed that the new Constitution of Armenia must not contain a reference to the Declaration of Independence unlike the current one. Pashinyan added that the issue was up to the people to decide. 

Pashinyan was asked by reporters whether the reference to the Declaration of Independence should be preserved in the new text of the Constitution which is currently under development.

“In my 2022-2024 addresses on the occasion of the Day of the Declaration of Independence I said that by having again studied and again read the text of the Declaration of Independence I have been convinced that what that text is about is that there can’t be an independent state and statehood of Armenia. If I am saying this, therefore I cannot say that the text of the new Constitution must have a reference to the Declaration of Independence. On the contrary, I can say that in my opinion there shouldn’t be a reference to the Declaration of Independence in the text of the new Constitution, but I want to repeat that it is up to the people of the Republic of Armenia to decide,” Pashinyan said.

Arguments about both preserving and removing the reference will be debated in political platforms, he added. He said the political forces and political leaders are the ones that would bring the arguments. 

The Armenian Prime Minister had earlier announced that the country needed to adopt a new Constitution. Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galyan had said that the draft must be ready before the 2026 general election. 

The Pashinyan administration has numerously said that the process of adopting a new constitution has been on its agenda ever since taking office in 2018 and has nothing to do with Azeri demands to do so. 

Despite Armenia and Azerbaijan having finalized the talks around the draft peace agreement, Azerbaijan has been stalling the signing of the deal by making preconditions, namely Armenian constitutional changes. Azerbaijan falsely claims that the reference to the Declaration of Independence in the Armenian constitution amounts to a territorial claim towards Azerbaijan. This has been numerously denied by Armenia.