No reference to Declaration of Independence should be made in new Constitution, Pashinyan says

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has spoken about the need for a new Constitution in Armenia, stressing that it is purely a domestic agenda and rejecting opposition claims that the initiative is being imposed by Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan made the remarks in parliament while presenting his administration’s 2026-2031 program.

Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a peace agreement in Washington on August 8, 2025. Azerbaijan, however, has since stated that it will formally sign the peace agreement when Armenia changes its Constitution. The Azerbaijani side claims that there is a territorial claim against Azerbaijan in Armenia’s Constitution, referring to the reference to Armenia’s Declaration of Independence in the Constitution’s preamble. The 1990 Declaration of Independence, in turn, cites a 1989 act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and Karabakh. This, according to Azerbaijan, amounts to a territorial claim.

The Armenian government has repeatedly stated that the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia contains no territorial claim against any country. The Constitutional Court of Armenia likewise ruled that the Constitution does not contain any territorial claims.

The Pashinyan administration has been speaking about the need for a new Constitution for several years.

In his speech in parliament on Monday, Pashinyan stressed that adopting a new Constitution is necessary first and foremost to implement reforms in the judicial system, since the current judicial system has no organic connection with the people, the primary source of power, and that this problem can only be resolved by adopting a new Constitution.

“Armenia’s judicial system largely continues to primarily protect the interests and concerns of the elites, mainly the former elites. The reason is not only that family ties of former elites are widespread within the judicial system; we also have an institutional problem here. Armenia’s judicial system is caste-based and does not have a full organic connection with the sole source and bearer of power, the people. The sole source of power in Armenia is the people, but there are systems for generating judicial power that are so removed from the people that, essentially, they have no connection with them. The procedure for judges electing members of the Supreme Judicial Council raises questions in particular, because a simple question arises: from whom does this power of judges to elect high-ranking officials derive? In Armenia, any power can derive only from the people, and power that does not derive from the people at least raises questions.

“This strange structure continues to operate to this day for one simple reason: it is under constitutional protection, and there is only one way to establish full legitimacy of power in the judicial system as well: adopting a new Constitution, which must also address the issue of introducing the institution of trial by jury,” the prime minister said.

According to the prime minister, as a result of these changes, the opportunities for corrupt circles to evade justice and judicial accountability will be significantly reduced.

In his assessment, this is why those same circles are making every effort to demonize the agenda of adopting a new Constitution and present it as an Azerbaijani agenda.

“First, I must state that the agenda for a new Constitution is purely an Armenian domestic agenda, not only because we adopted this agenda back in February 2020 and announced it, but also because now the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, by voting in favor of the Civil Contract party, also voted in favor of this agenda, because adopting a new Constitution is one of the key provisions of the Civil Contract party’s election program, based on the premise that the people of the Republic of Armenia have the right to finally have a Constitution adopted through their legitimate and free expression of will and, through their free expression of will, establish a legal order and rules for living for themselves,” Pashinyan said.

He added that, on the other hand, it is impossible to deny that Azerbaijan is very actively raising and even instrumentalizing the issue of constitutional reforms, which is a well-known fact.

“But if this means that the issue of a new Constitution is an Azerbaijani agenda, as some opposition circles claim, let us go back and look at the history of the Third Republic. By the same logic, since 1994, only Azerbaijan has continuously raised the issue of the return of the seven districts. In other words, there was no initiative related to this in Armenia. And as the published negotiating documents on the settlement of the Karabakh issue show, all of Armenia’s former authorities, that is, the political forces or leaders, representatives or advocates of the two current opposition factions, conducted active negotiations on this issue. Then why did they negotiate? Why did they keep Armenia within an Azerbaijani agenda for 24 years? Why did they follow an Azerbaijani agenda? Was it because they were guided by Azerbaijan or were representatives of Azerbaijan, especially since some of them were born and raised in Azerbaijan? I make these characterizations to show what absurd conclusions the logic of some of our opposition figures can lead to,” the prime minister stressed.

He clarified that the text of the new Constitution will be published in the coming months.

“As I have already said, there should be no reference to the 1990 Declaration of Independence in the new Constitution. Why? For one simple reason: we have declared the need and made the decision to stop and end the Karabakh movement, and the people have confirmed that decision. Referring to the Declaration of Independence in the new Constitution would mean continuing the Karabakh movement, would mean returning to the logic of conflict, and we cannot do this, especially after the 2026 elections, in which our people voted in favor of peace, and the peace agenda is now a nationwide agenda. Accordingly, maintaining, strengthening and institutionalizing the peace established with Azerbaijan is a priority agenda for the government,” Pashinyan said.