Pashinyan calls Armenia’s Declaration of Independence "anti-state"

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has described Armenia’s Declaration of Independence as anti-state, arguing that its text is incompatible with the existence of an independent state.

“That text makes it impossible to have an independent state; it is about the impossibility of having a state,” Pashinyan told reporters during a briefing.

Pashinyan said the adoption of a new Constitution was part of the Civil Contract party’s election program and that, having secured an absolute majority in the elections, his party must implement it.

“The opposition linked the constitutional process to the international and regional agenda. I think I will be able to make an offer that the opposition cannot refuse. There is a very high probability that this will not come to early elections. On the contrary, an offer will be formulated that the opposition cannot refuse. Yesterday, they gave us the opportunity to conduct the process in such a way that public pressure would be generated on the opposition, enabling them, through their vote, to make a referendum on a new Constitution possible,” the prime minister said.

Pashinyan had earlier announced that a draft of the new proposed Constitution would be published in the coming period.