Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, believes that Azerbaijan’s demand to amend Armenia’s constitution is neither a demand nor a condition. Simonyan explained his aforesaid position while speaking with reporters Friday.

Answering the question of what needs to be done to sign a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Simonyan said that the Azerbaijani side’s wish and will are necessary for that, and that the two parties are close to achieving it.

“You say a ‘condition,’ but I would call it a ‘concern.’ They [i.e. Azerbaijan] want everything to be written on paper so that there will be no pretext for a new war. In fact, that is a good wish. It's another thing that we [i.e. Armenia] believe raising the matter is unnecessary and that the matter is resolved. Everyone believes that Armenia has done everything, even more than its capabilities, to establish peace, and, although fragile, peace has been established,” Simonyan said.

The Armenian parliament speaker stated that “the main thing is for there to be peace in the country. There is no treaty with Georgia, but there is peace.”

According to him, lasting peace with Azerbaijan will take time so that those Armenians who wish can one day return to Nagorno-Karabakh. “There have been no shootings [between Armenia and Azerbaijan] for almost two years; such a thing has not happened since [Armenia’s] independence [in 1991],” Simonyan added.