“Out of sight”: who drafted Armenia’s new constitution, and where?

Azerbaijan has officially stated that Armenia must amend its constitution. Baku takes issue with the constitution’s reference to the Declaration of Independence, whose preamble mentions the December 1, 1989 decision “on the unification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Armenian authorities have consistently denied that any constitutional changes are being made at Baku’s request. Yet, by a curious coincidence, the question of constitutional amendments appeared on Armenia’s agenda in lockstep with Baku’s public demands.

On February 16, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev once again declared: “The signing of a peace agreement depends on when Armenia amends its constitution to remove the territorial claims against Azerbaijan that have been enshrined in the document for three decades.”

Then, on March 12, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told journalists: “The new constitution should contain no references to the Declaration of Independence whatsoever.”

The fact that Baku has been pressing Armenian authorities to amend the constitution was recently corroborated by a U.S. intelligence report, which states: “President Aliyev continues to insist that Armenia amend its constitution to remove a reference that he claims implies Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Armenia. Doing so would require a constitutional referendum in Armenia, the passage of which is not guaranteed.”

The draft text of Armenia’s new constitution recently became available in the press. According to reports, the draft contains no reference to the Declaration of Independence. It also raises a number of other concerns.

This time, Alpha News turns its attention to the question of Armenia’s constitutional change.