YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday, May 26, continued to call on Azerbaijan to drop its preconditions for signing a peace treaty with Armenia finalized by the two sides in March.
Baku was quick to dismiss Pashinyan’s appeal made during the Yerevan International Dialogue forum in Yerevan. And it again referred to much of modern-day Armenia as “historical Azerbaijani lands.”
In a lengthy speech delivered during the conference, Pashinyan insisted that the draft treaty fully addresses the stated Azerbaijani concerns about territorial claims to Azerbaijan allegedly contained in the Armenian constitution.
“There is no chance that Azerbaijan’s expectations will not be met if the treaty is signed,” he said. “We can be 100- percent sure that all concerns will be dispelled, and for this, the peace agreement must be signed.”
While insisting that the constitution does not lay claim to Nagorno-Karabakh recaptured by Baku in 2023, Pashinyan said: “If the [Armenian] Constitutional Court decides that the peace treaty does not conform to our constitution, then I will initiate constitutional amendments.”
Pashinyan promised to try to enact a new constitution through a referendum a year ago and has repeatedly reaffirmed that pledge since then. He admitted last month that he wants the kind of constitutional change that is demanded by Baku.
