Aliyev Insists On Change Of Armenia’s Constitution

Azerbaijan will not sign a peace treaty with Armenia unless the latter changes its constitution, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday.

“The signing of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan is simply impossible if the existing constitution of Armenia remains unchanged,” Aliyev was reported to tell lawmakers from Turkic states. He said that the constitution contains “territorial claims” to Azerbaijan.

Aliyev repeatedly voiced such demands earlier this year. He said Armenia must specifically remove from its constitution a reference to a 1990 declaration of independence which in turn cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.

The demands followed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s January 19 calls for the adoption of a new Armenian constitution reflecting the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. Pashinian denied afterwards that he wants to scrap the current constitution at the behest of Baku. Still, he said that peace with Azerbaijan will be impossible as long as the constitutional reference to the 1990 declaration remains in place.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan insisted earlier this week that the issue has not been on the agenda of ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on the peace accord.