Nikol Pashinyan: Constitution of Azerbaijan contains territorial claims against Armenia
ArmInfo.When the Azerbaijani side talks about ceasefire violations, and the Armenian side denies them, the best solution is to have a project to monitor the situation. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during a press conference in Yerevan on August 31, touching upon the accusations from the Azerbaijani side regarding ceasefire violations and in response to a request to express Yerevan's position on the future of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Pashinyan once again emphasized that this is the best solution for resolving the issue. In this regard, he added that the proposal from official Yerevan to create a mechanism for investigating incidents is still valid. "As for the dissolution of the Minsk Group, we believe that this can only happen when peace is within reach. While we are open to discussing this, it is important not to put the cart before the horse. The question we need to ask is how effective and necessary it is today. Azerbaijan has been using this issue in such a way that if Armenia does not agree to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group right now, immediately it implies territorial claims. We do not have any such claims. In addition, they claim that the Constitution of Armenia contains territorial claims.
We do not agree with this. They refer to the fact that the preamble to the Constitution contains a reference to the Declaration of Independence, which mentions Nagorno-Karabakh. However, the Declaration contains Article 5, which states that the armed forces are created under the leadership of the Supreme Council in 1995. When the Constitution was adopted, the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs began reporting to the President of the Republic, which means that the text of the Declaration was not literally transferred to the Constitution: what is written literally and word for word refers to Constitution, and what is not written does not concern the Constitution." Pashinyan also pointed out that elections in Armenia have always been held on an area of 29,743 square kilometers and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh have never participated in the electoral processes in the Republic of Armenia. Then the Armenian Prime Minister proposed considering the Constitution of Azerbaijan. "It contains a reference to the 1991 Act of Independence, as well as to the 1918 Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan, which states that today's Azerbaijan is the successor to the First Azerbaijan Republic. It mentions the Southern and Western Transcaucasia as part of it, and there are territorial claims to the regions of Tavush, Gegharkunik and Ararat. In comparison with our Constitution, the Constitution of Azerbaijan contains territorial claims to Armenia. We do not raise this issue, because the agreed articles of the peace treaty already state the fact that neither side can refer to its internal legislative acts," Pashinyan said.
At the same time, he also highlighted Azerbaijan's territorial ambitions to Georgia and Armenia as outlined in the Azerbaijani constitution. Pashinyan believes that bringing up the content of Azerbaijan's constitution in negotiations will drag the process into a dead end. That is why Yerevan is avoiding this topic. However, this does not mean that the Armenian side is not concerned about these issues.