The government wants to change the Constitution only for one reason: to remove the reference to the Declaration of Independence (which is Aliyev’s demand). The rest is idle talk. (In exactly the same way, the sole purpose of changing the Constitution in 2015 was to switch to a parliamentary system, and it is clear why).
I am surprised when NGO-s seriously discuss individual points of constitutional amendments, while the person on whom everything in this state depends (Pashinyan) says he intends to write a new Constitution. Either they are creating an illusion of universal discussion, or they sincerely believe that, apart from the above-mentioned point, no other point is important.
The National Assembly can be called “Armenian House” or “Nikol’s Areopagus,” the judicial system can be three-tiered or four-tiered, the symbolic figure called “president” may or may not exist, and the “stable majority” may or may not be formed. All that is absolutely not important.
And what is supposedly important?
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Local government? Mamikon Aslanyan won the local elections held in Vanadzor. As soon as he won, a criminal case was opened against him, and he remained in prison for more than two and a half years. That’s all there is to know about our judicial system. In the last elections of the Yerevan Council of Elders, the Civil Contract party did not get a majority, but then they bribed or pressured one of the opposition parties so that Hayk Marutyan would not become mayor.
A referendum? Do you remember, in 2020, a few months before the war, Pashinyan wanted to hold a referendum on whether or not Hrayr Tovmasyan should be the president of the Constitutional Court? The campaign had already started, and the Prime Minister, according to his habit, gave fiery speeches about “formers” and “licking the shoes of foreigners”. I think at that moment Aliyev finally understood that there are frivolous people in power in Armenia who are busy with stupid things.
Similar speeches will be made even now, and the mass of Nikol (“the people”) will say “yes” to the new Constitution. It’s obvious that they can’t let the “formers” return. Thus, the reason for “Yes” will not be the strong desire to have a new Constitution.
Aram Abrahamyan
