By Harut Sassounian
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced last week that he has ordered the preparation of a new constitution which will need the approval of the citizens of Armenia in a referendum.
I hope the majority of Armenian voters will reject the new constitution, thereby compelling him to resign. This is a golden opportunity to get rid of him. All previous efforts to remove him from office have failed over the past seven years because:
1) The split among the opposition groups has prevented them from forming a coalition large enough to remove Pashinyan from office. Even though his popularity has considerably decreased in recent years from 80% seven years ago to less than 10% now, nevertheless, his ruling party’s political rating is larger than any single opposition group. Many excuses have been made for not uniting, but none of these reasons are more important than the need to save the country. Regrettably, by being disunited, the opposition is the one that is keeping Pashinyan in power.
2) To form a successful anti-Pashinyan coalition, no one group should try to dominate it. The leadership of the coalition should be rotated until new elections are held.
3) A shadow government should be composed of all the opposition groups based on professional expertise.
4) The groups should temporarily set aside all of their internal differences and unite to save the nation. Should Armenia no longer exist, none of these groups’ ideologies will matter. Once they save the country, they can go back to pursuing their own goals.
Knowing Pashinyan’s egotistical modus operandi, he will crisscross Armenia to ensure that the citizens vote for the new constitution. He will leave no stone unturned to achieve his objective by pressuring and threatening them. He has the resources of the government at his disposal to carry out such a vast campaign and resort to vote tampering or collecting a large amount of campaign contributions that exceed the legal limit, just as his party did during the last Yerevan City Council elections. This is a critical goal for Pashinyan because Pres. Aliyev has made it clear that without a new Armenian constitution, he will refuse to sign the “Peace Treaty” that Pashinyan has been begging for. Pashinyan needs that signed piece of paper to fool the voters in the 2026 elections into thinking that he has brought them “peace” even though it will not last long.
Initially, Pashinyan dismissed Aliyev’s demand to change the constitution as interference in Armenia’s internal affairs. Furthermore, Pashinyan said that there is no such need as the draft of the peace treaty contains a clause that both countries agree to recognize each other’s territorial integrity. In the case of a dispute, the terms of the peace treaty will take precedence over their respective constitutions. Pashinyan added that Azerbaijan’s constitution itself contains indirect references to demanding territories from the Republic of Armenia. However, Pashinyan said that he will not ask Azerbaijan to revise its constitution!
In addition to changing Armenia’s constitution, Pashinyan has accepted the following demands from Aliyev:
n Armenia turning over certain villages located inside Armenia to Azerbaijan.
n Allow Azeris who formerly lived in enclaves inside Armenia to return and live there.
n To disband the OSCE Minsk group.
n The departure of EU monitors from Armenia.
n Armenia to drop its international lawsuits against Azerbaijan.
n The road from the Eastern part of Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan to be a Corridor under Azeri sovereignty rather than a mere road. While objecting to the Corridor, Pashinyan has agreed to facilitate the access.
n Even though the 2020 Agreement allows both Armenia and Azerbaijan to cross each other’s territory, Pashinyan has repeatedly said that Azeris are welcome to cross Armenia, without once stating that the agreement should be implemented reciprocally.
Armenia’s Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan said last week that the new constitution will be ready before the June 2026 parliamentary elections. It is not clear if the electorate will be asked to vote on the constitution at the same time as voting for the parliament members or after that election.
There is nothing wrong with amending the constitution from time to time as the need arises, but to be compelled to write a brand new one at the enemy’s demand is totally unacceptable.
It is critical that Armenian voters reject the new constitution. A no vote is a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister. He can no longer continue to remain in his position after having been rejected by the people on his key initiative. He will have no choice but to resign.
