Friday,
Pashinian Wants New Constitution
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a meeting at the Justice
Ministry,
Armenia must adopt a new constitution reflecting the “new geopolitical
environment” in the region, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said in remarks
publicized on Friday.
“The Republic of Armenia needs a new constitution, not constitutional changes,”
Pashinian told senior officials from the Armenian Ministry of Justice.
“We must have a constitution that will make Armenia more competitive and viable
in the new geopolitical and regional environment,” he said.
Pashinian did not elaborate on the content of the new constitution sought by
him, saying only that it should not change Armenia’s parliamentary system of
government. But he emphasized the country’s “external security” and
“internationally recognized sovereign territory” in that context.
Some Armenian analysts were quick to suggest that Pashinian is simply keen to
fulfill more demands voiced by Azerbaijan. One of them, Tigran Grigorian,
singled out safeguards against Armenian “revanchism” demanded by Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev in December.
A preamble to the current Armenian constitution enacted in 1995 and repeatedly
amended afterwards makes reference to a 1990 declaration of independence adopted
by the republic’s first post-Communist parliament. The declaration in turn
refers to a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet
Armenia and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. It also called for
international recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians “in Ottoman Turkey
and Western Armenia.”
Armenia - A copy of the 1990 Declaration of Independence.
Pashinian criticized the declaration last August, saying that it fomented the
conflicts with Azerbaijan and Turkey and is now at odds with his “peace agenda.”
The Armenian opposition denounced that statement as pro-Turkish and
pro-Azerbaijani.
Pashinian said that the idea of enacting a new constitution is also supported by
“a number of our partners.” He did not name them.
Pashinian has repeatedly called for major changes to the Armenian constitution
during his nearly six-year rule. He has made conflicting statements about which
articles of the constitution he believes should be amended.
Two years ago, he set up a new body tasked with coordinating the constitutional
reform process. The body now headed by Justice Minister Grigor Minasian has
still not drafted any constitutional amendments. Minasian said on January 8 that
it will come up with a “concept” for constitutional reform in the next few
months.
Pashinian’s meeting with Minasian and other Ministry of Justice officials held
on Thursday was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian. The
latter represents Yerevan in periodical talks with Baku on the delimitation of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Karabakh Factions Vow To Fight For ‘Collective Repatriation’
• Shoghik Galstian
Ethnic Armenian flee Karabakh for Armenia sitting in a truck at the Lachin
checkpoint controlled by Russian peackeepers and Azeri border guards, September
26, 2023.
Vartan Oskanian, a former Armenian foreign minister, has announced that he will
lead a political committee set by Nagorno-Karabakh’s main political factions
exiled in Armenia to campaign for the “collective repatriation” of the region’s
displaced population.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, Oskanian said the committee will
reveal its composition and details of its activities “in the coming days.”
“The primary mission of the Committee is to advocate for and pursue the right of
the collective repatriation of the Artsakh people with international guarantees,
ensuring their safe, secure and dignified resettlement in their homeland,” he
said.
“Achieving enduring peace in the region remains unattainable when a segment of
the Armenian people is forcefully uprooted from its homeland, and a coerced
notion of ‘peace’ is imposed upon Armenia, with the looming threat of further
losses,” added Oskanian, who has increasingly criticized Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s policy on the Karabakh conflict in recent years.
According to Davit Galstian, a leader of Karabakh’s Justice party, the committee
was set up by the exiled Karabakh parliament in early December.
“Since no Armenian officials raise our cause in the international arena, this is
an opportunity to prevent the Artsakh issue from being completely forgotten,”
Galstian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.
Armenia - Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian speaks at a conference of his
ORO opposition alliance in Yerevan, 25Feb2017.
Galstian said the committee led by Oskanian should engage international actors
that have called for the Karabakh Armenians’ safe return to their depopulated
homeland recaptured by Azerbaijan as a result of its September military
offensive. He did not say whether it will be ready to negotiate with the
Azerbaijani government.
Baku has denied targeting Karabakh civilians during the two-day military
operation or forcing them to flee the region in the following days. It has
pledged to protect the rights of local residents willing to live under
Azerbaijani rule. Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents ruled out such an
option even before their exodus.
Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party indicated on Friday its disapproval of the
initiative made public by Oskanian.
“I don’t believe that the repatriation is possible without a peace treaty
[between Armenia and Azerbaijan,]” said Gevorg Papoyan, the party’s deputy
chairman. “These are just going to be political speculations, attempts to draw
political dividends.”
“I also won’t rule out provocations against Armenia by the fifth column,”
Papoyan added without elaborating.
Pashinian has repeatedly indicated that the Karabakh issue is closed for his
administration. His political allies lashed out at Samvel Shahramanian, the
Karabakh president, late last month after he declared null and void his
September 28 decree liquidating the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Shahramanian said that he had to sign the decree in order to stop the
Azerbaijani assault and enable the Karabakh Armenians to safely flee to Armenia.
EU Envoy Also Avoids Trip To Baku
• Siranuysh Gevorgian
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian (right) meets Toivo Klaar, EU
special representative to the South Caucasus, .
Just like a U.S. envoy, the European Union’s special representative to the South
Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, did not proceed to Baku after holding talks with senior
Armenian officials in Yerevan on Thursday.
The Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process was the main focus of the talks. Klaar’s
office told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that he will not visit the
Azerbaijani capital this time around because of the ongoing presidential
election campaign in Azerbaijan. It downplayed this fact, saying that the
European diplomat remains “in close touch” with Azerbaijani officials.
The U.S. envoy, Louis Bono, visited Yerevan last week to discuss continuing U.S.
attempts to reschedule a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to host in
Washington on November 20. Baku cancelled the meeting in protest against what it
called pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant
secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia.
According to some Azerbaijani media outlets, Azerbaijani officials refused to
receive Bono. The U.S. embassies in both South Caucasus nations did not deny the
snub.
Also, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice withdrew from EU-mediated talks
with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian slated for October. Aliyev’s top foreign
policy aide said afterwards that Baku and Yerevan do not need third-party
mediation in order to negotiate a bilateral peace treaty.
Last week, Aliyev again demanded the opening an extraterritorial corridor to
Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province and Armenian
withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages.” And he continued to dismiss
Yerevan’s insistence on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Pashinian rejected Aliyev’s demands, saying that
they amount to territorial claims to Armenia and undermine prospects for the
kind of peace treaty that is backed by the EU and the U.S.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian complained about Aliyev’s
“unconstructive” remarks when he met with Klaar on Thursday. According to the
Armenian Foreign Ministry, Kostanian also accused Baku of hampering transport
links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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