Azerbaijan Demands Armenia Rewrite Its Constitution Before Signing Peace Agreement

A senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Tuesday that Azerbaijan will not sign a final peace agreement with Armenia unless Yerevan changes its Constitution, reaffirming one of Baku’s key conditions for ending decades of conflict.

Speaking to Turkey’s Haber Global television, Hikmet Hajiyev said Azerbaijan expects Armenia to remove what it considers constitutional provisions containing territorial claims against both Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“We expect the provision containing territorial claims against Azerbaijan, as well as Turkey, to be removed from Armenia’s Constitution,” Hajiyev said. “The messages we are hearing indicate that Armenia is preparing to begin the process of adopting a new Constitution, which could include a nationwide referendum.”

Hajiyev said such changes would remove any remaining obstacle to signing a comprehensive peace treaty. He also claimed that the South Caucasus is already experiencing “de facto peace.”

The constitutional issue has become one of the main sticking points in negotiations between the two countries. Azerbaijan argues that Armenia’s Constitution contains territorial claims because its preamble refers to the country’s Declaration of Independence. That declaration cites a Dec. 1, 1989, joint resolution adopted by the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR and the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh calling for the reunification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Soviet Armenia.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has also called for constitutional reform but has consistently said the process is an internal matter for Armenia rather than a concession to foreign demands.

“The issue of the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution is our internal matter because we need it for ourselves, not for others, in order to position ourselves correctly in the world,” Pashinyan said on March 19. “The Declaration of Independence is not a declaration of independence. It is a declaration of conflict and, as a result, a declaration of dependence.”

Pashinyan has repeatedly argued that Armenia should adopt a new Constitution based on the country’s own long-term interests. Azerbaijan, however, continues to insist that constitutional amendments are a prerequisite for signing a final peace agreement, leaving one of the most significant obstacles to a treaty still unresolved.

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