Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has met twice with senior members of his Civil Contract party to discuss the draft of a new Armenian constitution demanded by Azerbaijan.
The issue topped the agenda of the latest meeting of the party’s governing board held on Sunday. None of its details were made public.
The board also discussed the draft at its previous meeting that took place on October 13 hours after Pashinian said that his government will now “focus on the process of signing and ratifying the peace treaty initialed with Azerbaijan.” He spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of an ex-Soviet summit in Turkmenistan on October 9.
Aliyev makes the signing of the treaty conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which he says lays claim to Nagorno-Karabakh. While rejecting this precondition in public, Pashinian has pledged to enact a new constitution acceptable to Baku.
The Armenian Justice Ministry drafted it early this year, bypassing the Constitutional Reform Council that had been formed by Pashinian. The document has still not been made public.
The council headed by Justice Minister Srbuhi Galian has not met since April. Edmon Marukian, an opposition politician sitting on it, said on Monday that he has petitioned Galian to finally disclose the draft and resume the work of the ad hoc body.
The new constitution sought by Pashinian has to be approved by at least two-thirds of the Armenian parliament deputies before it can be put on a referendum. Civil Contract fell short of such a majority in disputed parliamentary elections held on June 7.
The two opposition groups represented in the National Assembly have vowed to block the referendum. They remain strongly opposed to the change of the constitution which they say is imposed by Baku. Pashinian and his political allies have still not clarified how they plan to overcome the opposition resistance.
“It’s still too early to talk about that,” said Hasmik Hakobian, a parliament deputy from Civil Contract. She hinted that the ruling party hopes to win over some opposition lawmakers during parliament debates on the issue.
Baku objects to a preamble to the current Armenian constitution referring to a 1990 declaration of independence, which in turn cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The only legal way to remove that reference is to exclude the preamble from the new constitution.