A referendum on Armenia’s new constitution demanded by Azerbaijan will likely take place in 2027, Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan said on Thursday.
“The constitutional referendum, as a result of a new agreement, is planned for 2027,” he told reporters. “It means that we will work on that complex document in detail, with public discussions, also working with all specialists, not urgently.”
Minasyan heads the Constitutional Reform Council that was formed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in 2022 with the initial aim of proposing amendments to the current Armenian constitution. It consists of state officials, pro-government politicians and leaders of two non-governmental organizations.
Pashinian changed the council’s mandate in May this year, saying that it must draft a “new constitution” from scratch before January 2027. The move came as Azerbaijan continued to make the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia conditional on a change of the Armenian constitution which Azerbaijani leaders say contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
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Baku specifically wants Yerevan to remove a preamble to the constitution that mentions Armenia’s 1990 declaration of independence, which in turn cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The only legal way to do that is to enact an entirely new constitution through a referendum.
Pashinian and his political team deny opposition claims that he wants to enact a new constitution under Azerbaijani pressure. But the prime minister did say in in February that peace with Azerbaijan will be impossible as long as the 1990 declaration is referenced in the Armenian constitution.
Edmond Marukian, a politician and member of the Constitutional Reform Council, publicly spoke out on August 1 against the adoption of the new constitution. Marukian said Baku is using the issue to avoid signing the peace deal and “will continue to make new demands to Armenia” in any case.
The two civic activists sitting on the council have said, for their part, that the new constitution, if enacted, should also cite the 1990 declaration. But they and Marukian are outnumbered by other members of the government panel who will likely back any decision made by Pashinian.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev renewed his demands for the constitutional change in late April after forcing Pashinian’s government to hand over four disputed border areas to Azerbaijan. Armenian opposition leaders have strongly condemned the land transfer, saying that it will only encourage Baku to demand more Armenian concessions.
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
