Armenia’s Declaration of Independence adopted on August 23, 1990

A senior lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party announced that the draft constitution would not include a reference to Armenia’s Declaration of Independence, the removal of which has been a precondition set forth by Azerbaijan’s president for signing a peace deal with Armenia.

Azerbaijan claims that the mention of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence in the preamble of the current constitution signals territorial claims from Azerbaijan, since the declaration contains a provision calling for the reunification of Armenia and Artsakh.

Arusyak Julhakyan, a member of the ruling Civil Contract party who is nominated to lead the new parliament’s committee on legal affairs, announced on Tuesday that the new draft of the constitution will not include a reference to the declaration of independence and will be publicized by the end of this year.

While Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has rejected Baku’s claims, he has called the declaration of independence “a declaration of war” saying that a new constitution must not make reference to Armenia’s finding document, seemingly echoing Baku’s demands.

“Has the reference to the Declaration of Independence been removed from the text of the Constitution? Nothing has been removed from the text of the Constitution, because we are writing a new Constitution. It is not that we have taken the Constitution and deleted some provisions from it or added new things. We have taken a blank sheet of paper and started writing the text of a new. Does the preamble, which is supposed to be included in the draft, contain a reference to the Declaration of Independence? No, and it should not have, and Aliyev has nothing to do with it,” Julhakyan said.

With that statement, Julhakyan was directly responding to a question and statement by Armenia Alliance lawmaker Anna Grigoryan, who insisted that the new constitution is being drafted to appease Baku, pledging that her bloc could not possibly approve such a document, given the pressures from Azerbaijan.

The draft of the constitution, which was completed in the spring, has to be approved by at least two-thirds of the parliament members before being put on a referendum. Pashinyan’s party fell short of such a majority in the elections held on June 7. Pashinyan has yet to clarify just how he is planning to overcome this hurdle.

Julhakyan indicated in this regard that Civil Contract hopes to win over some opposition lawmakers through public discussions planned after the release of the draft at the end of the year.

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