The text of the new draft constitution of Armenia will be publicized by the end of the year, and the matters of border delimitation and exclaves will be resolved exclusively on the basis of the Alma-Ata declaration.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this at a press briefing held at the government Thursday, as he commented on the morning statements by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, in which he once again repeated Baku's demand to make amendments to Armenia’s constitution, as well as the prospects for resolving the issue of exclaves and enclaves.

The Armenian premier assured that Yerevan, in principle, does not discuss its internal issues on foreign policy platforms, and the agenda of constitutional reforms is part of the ruling party's election program, for which 726 thousand citizens voted. "The delay in publicizing [the text of the new draft constitution of Armenia] was due to the fact that during the discussions, numerous proposals were made by the members of the Civil Contract party board.

Realizing that we would not be able to discuss them in a calm working atmosphere before the [parliamentary] elections [on June 7], we decided to postpone this process until the post-election period, so as not to publicize the intra-team version without proper analysis.

Now the deadline for submitting proposals has expired, they have been discussed, it remains to make a decision on one last point. I will not specify specific timeframes now, but we will publicize the text by the end of the year," Pashinyan explained.

Touching upon the topic of Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation and the settlement of the issue of enclaves and exclaves, the prime minister noted that Armenia is equally interested in resolving this issue, since the Armenian exclave, the village of Artsvashen, continues to remain de jure under the control of Azerbaijan.

Also, he shared a noteworthy observation, pointing out the legal nuances reflected in the official symbols of Azerbaijan. “On Azerbaijani [currency] manats and passports, where the map of Azerbaijan is depicted, Artsvashen is indicated separately and highlighted in a different color as a territory that de jure does not belong to it.

This is a very important nuance. I think we [i.e. Armenia] should take a mirror approach to accurately follow the maps of the 1991 Alma-Ata declaration,” Pashinyan said. The Armenian premier noted that there are two ways to resolve the issue of exclaves: either the territories de jure retain their status as part of the country to which they belonged at the time of the collapse of the USSR, or the parties agree on the exchange of equivalent sections along the border.

Nikol Pashinyan specifically pointed out that both Armenia and Azerbaijan have similar infrastructure problems, when roads leading to their settlements cross ex-Soviet enclave zones, and in the case of Azerbaijan, this could lead to the complete isolation of some of its villages.

"The logic of the conflict is that whoever took what belongs to it. But we have abandoned that logic. We are guided by the logic of the peace agreement and the Alma-Ata declaration: the territory of Armenia is identical to the territory of Soviet Armenia—29,743 square kilometers, and the territory of Azerbaijan is identical to the territory of Soviet Azerbaijan.

If in the end we come to any decision on the borders, which, according to the legislation and Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, will require the expression of the will of the people, we will, naturally, appeal to the citizens on this issue," the prime minister of Armenia concluded.