If the Constitutional Court of Armenia decides after signing the document that the peace agreement contradicts the constitution, I have already stated that we will launch amendments to the constitution. Nikol Pashinyan stated this while answering questions after his address Tuesday at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in Strasbourg, France.

“If our Constitutional Court decides that the [peace] agreement [with Azerbaijan] complies with our constitution, then there is no obstacle to its ratification by the parliament of our country, after which it can receive the highest legal force. Therefore, there are no constitutional issues in the context of the peace agreement,” the Armenian PM noted.

Pashinyan stated that Armenia had acknowledged the need to adopt a new constitution back in February 2020.

“My analysis has shown that the legal system established in Armenia has no organic connection with the people [of the country], as the people [of Armenia] do not believe that the legal system [in the country] was established as a result of their decisions. And I see the only way to overcome this ‘allergic’ phenomenon in the adoption of a new constitution, which will create an organic connection between the people and the legal order established in the [Armenian] state,” the premier said, in particular.

According to Pashinyan, there are no obstacles to the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“On the contrary, even if we assume that Azerbaijan’s concerns [regarding ‘territorial claims’ by Armenia] are justified, the fastest way to resolve them is the signing and ratifying of the peace agreement, as this will create a legally binding barrier for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make territorial claims to each other,” added the Armenian premier.

Pashinyan recalled that the constitution of Armenia states that ratified international treaties have higher legal force than domestic laws, and therefore, when a peace agreement is signed in accordance with Armenia’s laws, the country’s authorities must submit it to the Constitutional Court to determine its compliance with Armenia’s constitution.

“We have expressed our position, and are discussing the constitution as part of our internal agenda. There is no need for constitutional amendments in the context of signing the peace agreement. Why? For several reasons:

Azerbaijan claims that the constitution of Armenia contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan, while in September 2024, the Constitutional Court of Armenia considered the matter of the regulations on the activities of the border delimitation commissions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and declared that the constitution of Armenia does not have territorial claims against any country.

On October 6, 2022, in Prague, we agreed with the president of Azerbaijan to build our relations on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration [of 1991], recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and inviolability of borders. Our Constitutional Court has recorded that this agreement does not contradict the constitution of Armenia in any way.

The text of the peace agreement also contains a reference to this declaration.

The peace agreement contains another provision: none of the parties can use its domestic legislation to justify the failure to fulfill the terms of the peace agreement. That is, although it enshrines the mutual recognition of territorial integrity, it also notes that domestic legislation cannot serve as an excuse for deviating from these agreements,” the Armenian PM concluded.