Armenian Government Moves Quickly to Write New Constitution Under Pressure from Azerbaijan

The Armenian government has decided to speed up writing a brand-new constitution. Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan, who is leading this effort, said over the weekend that her team will skip the usual early steps and begin writing the full text right away. This decision comes as Azerbaijan continues to threaten and demand constitutional changes from Armenia before it agrees to sign a peace treaty.

In 2022, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan created a special council called the Constitutional Reform Council. At first, the council’s job was to suggest some changes to Armenia’s current constitution. But in May 2023, Pashinyan gave it a new mission: write an entirely new constitution from scratch by January 2027.

This shift happened while Azerbaijan was making it clear that it would only sign a peace agreement with Armenia if the Armenian constitution was changed. Azerbaijani leaders say Armenia’s current constitution contains phrases that suggest Armenia has claims on Azerbaijani land, especially the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenia denies this, but the political pressure remains.

Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan, who took her position in November, now says that there is no more need to first create a general concept or roadmap for the new constitution. Instead, she believes it’s time to sit down and simply write it.

“We no longer need to develop a concept … Instead of developing a concept, we need to write a text. That is, to sit down and write a new constitution,” she said during an interview on ArmComedy, a political talk show on YouTube. She added that she thinks a draft could be ready in ten months.

She also said that the process has already started. However, her ministry refused to explain who exactly is writing the constitution right now. Officials said only that whatever drafts are created will be discussed from time to time with the Constitutional Reform Council.

Not everyone agrees with the new plan. Daniel Ioannisyan, a member of the council and head of a Western-funded NGO, said Galyan’s approach goes against Pashinyan’s original executive order. He stressed that the process must begin with public discussions about the concept of the constitution, followed by agreement and support from the public before any text is written.

“It is obvious that first of all, there should be public discussions around the concept… only then should the text be written based on that,” Ioannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He also criticized Galyan’s ten-month timeline, saying it is not realistic.

Many critics believe that the only reason Armenia is trying to change the constitution so quickly is to satisfy Azerbaijan’s demands. Opposition leaders in Armenia have warned that this is another sign of the government giving in too easily.

Pashinyan has denied this. But in a speech in February, he did say that the new constitution “may have a regional significance as well.” Galyan added in March that the constitution must not become an obstacle to peace with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, for his part, repeated last week that there will be no peace treaty unless Armenia changes its constitution in a way that Baku finds acceptable. In particular, Azerbaijan wants Armenia to remove a section in its current constitution that refers to Armenia’s 1990 declaration of independence. That declaration itself references a 1989 act that called for the unification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The only legal way for Armenia to remove that language is to adopt a completely new constitution through a public referendum.

So far, the Constitutional Reform Council has not met since August 2023. Galyan has promised to speed things up, but many are still waiting to see if the public will be included in the process, or if the government will continue behind closed doors.