The issue of Constitution amendments has never been on the agenda of negotiations with Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with Public TV.
However, he said, Azerbaijan’s stance on the issue is well-known. “Baku says the Armenian Constitution includes territorial claims on Azerbaijan. As a ground for this Azerbaijan refers to the preamble of the Constitution, which, in turn, refers to the Declaration of Independence, which, in turn, refers to the 1988 decision on reunification of the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. What is our response to this? The political response here is actually not that important, because the Constitutional Court has referred to the issue in the context of its discussion of the Regulation on the activity of the border commissions. The Court has said that only those provisions of the Declaration of Independence that are literally reflected in the Constitution have constitutional power,” PM Pashinyan said.
According to him, it’s important to understand why Azerbaijan is raising the issue, whether it is really concerned or just because it wants to take the peace process to an impasse. “Given the progress in the negotiations, we would not like to be guided by the logic that Azerbaijan is intentionally leading the process into an impasse. What we are doing is trying to diffuse those concerns,” PM Pashinyan said.
“We also have concerns that the Constitution of Azerbaijan contains territorial claims on the Republic of Armenia, but we are not raising the issue for two reasons. First, it would mean taking the peace process to an impasse. Second, in the agreed part of the peace treaty there is an article, which stipulates that none of the parties can make reference to its domestic legislation to avoid fulfilling the obligations envisaged by the agreement. Another article of the agreed part of the treaty says Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity, refrain from territorial claims on each other and commit not to lay such claims in the future,” PM Pashinyan said.
Therefore, he said, “we consider this issue solved.” “However there is a third argument, which applies to Armenia, but is true for Azerbaijan, as well. Article 5.3 of the Armenian Constitution stipulates that the international agreements ratified by the Republic of Armenia are superior to the domestic legislation,” PM Pashinyan stated.
