Azerbaijan’s leadership continues to demand that Armenia not only change its constitution, but remove Armenia’s Declaration of Independence reference, deeming that as “the only obstacle” in the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries.
“That document contains territorial claims from Azerbaijan,” Elchin Amirbayov, a special advisor to Azerbaijan’s president told RFE/RL’s regional correspondent Joshua Kucera in an interview published on Tuesday.
“We want to be reassured that the peace agreement is a kind of a solemn treaty that would render impossible any return to revanchism or to any territorial claims to Azerbaijan in the future as it had done in the past,” Amirbayov said. “Territorial claims against Azerbaijan that are embedded in the current Armenian Constitution continue to remain the main, and I would say pretty much the only, obstacle to further progress in the peace process.”
“It is unacceptable for us that Armenia is using delay tactics in the peace talks or for signing a peace treaty while strengthening its military capabilities and to start this story again,” the Azerbaijani official said, seemingly accusing Yerevan of preparing for another military conflict.
Yerevan has insisted that its recent acquisition of weapons, primarily from India and France, are meant to bolster its defensive capabilities and are part of a larger military reform agenda being advanced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government.
Baku has been vocal in its criticism, especially of France, for selling weapons to Armenia, charging that Paris — and to a certain extent the European Union — are sabotaging the ongoing peace talks between the two countries.
At the same time, both the EU and the United States are calling on Yerevan and Baku to immediately sign a peace agreement. High level European and American officials have urged the leadership of the two countries to demonstrate the will and conclude the peace agreement as soon as possible.
Days before the interview with Kucera, Amirbayov was in Washington where he met with top American officials, including Deputy Secretary of State James O’Brien, who, in the past several months, has pushed for a swift signing of a peace treaty. O’Brien continues to advance the economic benefits an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will provide for economic growth.
Amirbayov said that there is an expectation that the peace talks will conclude and a treaty will be signed in November, on the margins of the United Nations Climate Summit, called COP29, which is being hosted by Azerbaijan this year.
“However, we believe that it will not make sense without addressing territorial demands froմ Azerbaijan that are engrained in Armenia’s Constitution,” Amirbayov said, adding that hastily signing a peace treaty with possible legal barriers will allow Armenia to renew its territorial claims and the balance of power in the region will shift to Armenia’s benefit.
Baku is specifically concerned with a reference to Armenia’s Declaration of Independence within the Constitution that calls for the reunification of Armenia and Artsakh.
Armenia’s foreign ministry two months ago announced that the peace treaty provisions succinctly state that neither party has territorial claims from each other. There is also a provision that sides may not invoke their existing laws to not fulfill the peace treaty.
“If we leave the current Constitution unchanged or ignore it, it means that even if we sign a peace treaty, there is the possibility that a new government may nullify the agreement because that document technically contradicts Armenia’s current Constitution,” Amerbekov said, adding that Armenia’s Constitutional Court may also rule the peace treaty as unconstitutional.
Official Yerevan has been insisting that amending the Constitution is Armenia’s domestic issue. Pashinyan, who has called for a completely new constitution, said that an ad hoc committee working on such changes should propose the amendments by the end of 2026.
Amirbayov said that Pashinayn has discussed this issue with Azerbaijan, which views the timeline set for a new constitution as a delay tactic.
The Azerbaijani official claimed that the international community will not tolerate such delays in signing of a peace treaty, saying that “it is evident that there is not need to rush and sign a piece of paper, which can be nullified by a new government.”
Amirbayov signaled that Baku is only interested in a change in the preamble of Armenia’s Constitution and the adoption of a new constitution is Armenia’s domestic concern.
In what can be deemed an insult to Armenia and its people, Amirbayov said that changing the Constitution’s preamble “should not require years of discussion,” adding that Baku has already drawn up plans on how Armenia can conduct a referendum on that one point.
He went on to threaten Armenia once again, saying to Armenia: “Do you want to achieve peace with Azerbaijan or do you want to leave the potential of a conflict?” Ameribekov said that he believes that the people of Armenia will choose peace over war, given the major defeat it experienced in the 2020 War.
Aliyev’s special adviser also said there were other “problematic” or contentious issues that remain on the negotiating table, namely the dissolution of the OSCE Mink Group, as well as Armenia’s pending legal cases in international courts, which he said contain territorial claims from Azerbaijan.
Amerbekov claims to the RFE/RL reporter that Armenia has agreed to address the aforementioned issues after the signing of a treaty, in which case, the Aliyev adviser, said “in return” they have found an acceptable alternative to the issue of a road connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan—the so-called “Zangezur Corridor.”
“We understand that we can’t bring to fruition a peace treaty in the foreseeable future, if, in addition to the issue of the Constitution, another disagreement is unresolved: the issue of opening transport routes,” Amerbekov said.
“On mutual agreement, we decided to take this paragraph out of the peace agreement and to refer it to a later stage,” he said. “I don’t want to complicate even further the task of finalizing the peace agreement. So, we decided to take it out of the text, but we can still reflect in the text [on] the fact that this is one of the other issues on which the countries may come back at some point to discuss and to come to a common agreement.”
“When the peace treaty is signed, the two delegations, or the two countries, can resume discussions about an acceptable resolution for a route between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan,” Amerbakov said.
The Azerbaijani official also added that peace with Azerbaijan will immediately create an opportunity for Armenia to normalize relations with Turkey.
In discussing the meeting of the special Armenian and Turkish envoys last week on the border of their two countries, Amirbayov said that “Ankara, once again, demonstrated that Yerevan is wasting its time if it thinks that it is able to normalize relations with Turkey by bypassing Baku.”
