Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has described the adoption of a new Constitution as the most important reform on the country’s path to strengthening democracy.
Speaking at a panel discussion titled “The Quality of Democracy in Armenia: Challenges and Evaluation Indicators” during the Armenian Forum for Democracy, Pashinyan called the constitutional process “the reform of reforms,” stressing that it must create an “organic link between the people and the legal order.”
“Since 1995, in no constitutional referendum have more than 50+1 percent of citizens participated and voted in favor of the Constitution,” he said. “This is not only a political issue, but also an organic one: the people of Armenia do not consider the existing legal order as their own, nor as an agreement that governs our internal life.”
Pashinyan argued that the current constitutional system is viewed by Armenians as alien and imposed, likening it to past political orders enforced during the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire.
“People believe that some group has imposed this legal order on them — whether it is Armenia’s legal elite or foreign powers,” he said. “A Constitution is supposed to be the document where citizens, by casting their vote, notarize the agreement on how we will live together within the same country. Without this reform, we cannot solve our institutional problems.”
The Prime Minister emphasized that adopting a new Constitution would be a crucial step toward ensuring that Armenia’s democratic framework is truly owned and endorsed by its citizens.
