After Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rejected Azerbaijan’s ongoing demands for changes to Armenia’s Constitution, official Baku on Friday responded by dubbing the Armenian leader’s remarks as “groundless.” In the same response, posted on social media, Baku also claimed Armenia’s Syunik and Vayots Dzor provinces as Azerbaijani territory.
“Mr. Prime Minister, your allegations about Azerbaijan’s Constitution, which contains territorial claims, are groundless and mislead the international community. This allegation is a futile balancing act and an attempt to overlook and ignore the claims toward the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Aykhan Hajizade, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesperson said in his post. “It seems that there is a necessity to once again shed a light on this.”
The spokesperson said Pashinyan’s assertions that Azerbaijan’s constitution also contains territorial claims from Armenia are untrue because Azerbaijan constitution “does not contain any claim to the neighboring countries.”
However, in his lengthy response, Hajizada claimed that Armenia’s Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces are historical Azerbaijani territories.
“The Constitution of Armenia is based on the fundamental principles of Armenian statehood and pan-national aspirations enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of Armenia of 1990, among which it aims for a ‘reunification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,’ and calls some territories of Turkey as ‘Western Armenia,’” Hajizada said.
“It is an irrefutable fact that this particular provision was used as a basis in Armenia’s multiple legislations, including Parliament’s decision of February 18, 1992 on the ratification of the CIS founding agreement (Almaty), and the decision of July 8, 1992. The same logic and approach were applied during the adoption of the court’s decision on the conformity of the regulation of the border commissions between Azerbaijan and Armenia with the Armenian Constitution of 26 September 2024,” Hajizada claimed, saying all these “demonstrate” that Armenia has never recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
“Therefore, statements that Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan have no legal ground until Armenia makes changes to its Constitution and renounces all the legal and political acts that reflect its claim to Azerbaijan,” Hajizada said.
“Taking into account Armenia’s history of aggression against Azerbaijan while joining the Almaty Declaration as well as ongoing claims in its legislation as well as political statements, and legal documents it is time to ask for clarification on what is meant by the ’recognition of each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty’ for Armenia back in 1992 and now?” the Azerbaijani spokesperson said.
Speaking at parliament on Wednesday, Pashinyan cited two reasons for refraining from amending the constitution, saying that Baku’s demands, which have been voiced ad nauseam by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, would deadlock the ongoing peace talks.
He also said another aspect for this move was the portions of the peace treaty that have been agreed upon between Baku and Yerevan include an article, which defines that the “parties cannot refer to their domestic legislation to justify the failure to implement the agreement.”
