Armenia’s Constitution and Coat of Arms

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan again threatened to amass what he called “public pressure” on opposition forces in order to advance and approve a new Constitution at all costs.

The Armenian government plans to publish a draft of the new Constitution as early as November, Pashinyan said Monday during a joint meeting of the parliamentary standing committees discussing the draft state budget for 2027.

“We will publish the draft of the new Constitution, launch public consultations, and present and consider the proposals received. This process will continue until we are satisfied that the draft new Constitution has been discussed widely enough by our society,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister noted that one of the government’s key upcoming tasks is to sign and ratify a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. In this context, the opposition has raised the question of whether adopting a new Constitution would guarantee the signing of the agreement and the establishment of comprehensive peace.

“In the near future, our efforts will be focused on obtaining answers to precisely these questions. If Armenia’s ruling majority gives a clear affirmative answer to this question and convincingly addresses the questions that follow from it, then allow me to express my conviction: if we begin the process of adopting a new Constitution with such positive answers in hand, an overwhelming majority of Armenian citizens will go to the polling stations and vote in favor of it.

“If we receive positive answers, but the parliamentary opposition takes a position against it, that would mean that the opposition is against peace with Azerbaijan. In that case, public pressure against the opposition will undoubtedly begin to build. And I believe that Armenia’s ruling majority should lead that pressure,” the prime minister said.

Pashinyan advanced this new approach to the issue last week, when he vowed that a new Consitution must be adopted at all costs.

Both he and Mirzoyan said that signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan was of utmost importance. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has made the adoption of a new constitution a precondition for signing the document.