Armenia should amend its constitution if it really wants to sign a peace deal with Azerbaijan, Director of Report News Agency Fuad Huseynaliyev told the CBC TV channel, Report informs.
"[Armenian Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan periodically refers to a certain decision of the Constitutional Court [of Armenia], which states that the Armenian Constitution does not contain any claims to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. But the constitution refers to the Declaration of Independence, where such claims take place. This is a play on words, which naturally does not inspire confidence in the Azerbaijani side," Huseynaliyev noted, stressing that Pashinyan and his team need to convince the country's population of the need for constitutional changes.
According to Huseynaliyev, amending the constitution will not allow the next government of Armenia, if it is revanchist, to denounce the peace treaty and again make territorial claims to Azerbaijan. The agency director emphasized that revanchist forces around the country's leading political figures, such as former presidents Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Levon Ter-Petrosyan, have become significantly more active in Armenia. However, in his opinion, there are enough peacefully-minded citizens in Armenia.
"I think that there are enough people in Armenian society to accept the necessary constitutional changes. The population's readiness to vote in support of the changes will depend on how Pashinyan's government presents and demonstrates the advantages that will follow these changes," he said.
According to Huseynaliyev, Pashinyan's policy is full of contradictions and inconsistencies. One of the problematic topics is the future of the OSCE Minsk Group, he noted.
"Pashinyan's latest statement that the Minsk Group should be abolished after the signing of the peace treaty looks like a condition," he said, reminding that the group was created within the "Nagorno-Karabakh conflict": "But this issue is no longer relevant. The mandate of the Minsk Group was limited to this issue, which is no longer relevant."
Huseynaliyev added that third parties, such as France, are also interfering in the process of signing the peace treaty. He believes that Paris sees the normalization of the situation in the South Caucasus as a geopolitical threat that affects France's domestic policy.
"The main question is how prudent Armenia will be in preventing France from having a negative impact on the peace process with Azerbaijan," he concluded.
