Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday said that peace would be impossible as long as Armenia’s Declaration of Independence calls for the unification of Armenia and Artsakh. The prime minister’s comments come on the heels of President Ilham Aliyev demanding changes to Armenia’s Constitution.
«We will never have peace if the Declaration of Independence contains a decision to unify Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan told the Armenian Public Radio during an interview on Thursday.
Armenia’s independence declaration was adopted in 1990 and contained the imperative to unify Armenia and Artsakh. That sentiment is also echoed in Armenia’s Constitution.
On the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in August, Pashianyan criticized the document, saying it sows enmity and war.
During the interview, he also reiterated the need to adopt a new constitution while acknowledging that a reform process is currently underway, with a special commission tasked to represent amendment to the Constitution.
He said that a new constitution will go a long way to address what he called a “gap between the citizens and the state.”
Pashinyan said that such a gap existed because the Armenian Constitution, which was adopted in 1995 — and modified thereafter — “was never adopted under conditions and an environment where the citizen of the Republic of Armenia could say: ‘I went, voted, and adopted the Constitution.’ In other words: ‘I went and recorded my agreement with other citizens and the state, that we relate to each other this way and live this way.’”
He claimed that a constitutional referendum will allow citizens Armenia to exercise their “own free will, without coercion, without falsification, without manipulation, and established the agreement.”
Pashinyan emphasized the importance of the Constitution having an organic connection with the people.
“The organic connection with the people is not only expressed by the fact that we have to discuss, understand all the nuances, and remove all the formulations. The text of the constitution is mostly a matter for professional discussion and wording to serve the political guidelines, but the organic link with the state — the organic link with the people — is formed from the moment when the people accept and confirm this condition, and record that they are ‘a state people’ and record that within the borders of this state, we will relate to each other according to these rules,” said Pashinyan.
Pashinyan also emphasized that the government cannot change the Constitution.
“The government can propose to the people, engage in discussions with the people, present its explanations to the people, and only the people can make that decision,” said Pashinyan.