The deadline for a referendum on constitutional reforms in Armenia has been extended. The change is therefore scheduled to take place in 2027. However, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked the president about the start of changes to the country’s constitution last month. Ilham AliyevIt asked for time until 2026 and said it intends to start reforms after the parliamentary elections to be held on that date. Official Iran appears to continue to undermine the peace process by evading Azerbaijan’s proposals and plans to continue the atmosphere of instability that has increased in the region.
It was not for nothing that President Ilham Aliyev touched upon this issue again, noting that Armenia deliberately extended the deadline because it is not interested in a peace agreement and in achieving lasting peace in the region. The Head of State also touched upon this issue yesterday when receiving the delegation of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and said that territorial claims against Azerbaijan in the Armenian Constitution should be removed and the Constitution should be changed.
It is interesting that while crisis-ridden Armenia needs a peace deal more than Azerbaijan, Yerevan, on the contrary, is deliberately delaying the process and laying the groundwork for further escalation with the support and instigation of its sponsors in the region.
the topic Oku.AzPresident of the Atlas Research Center, political commentator Elkhan Sahinoglu He said the plan to hold a referendum in Armenia in 2027 means that a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia will not be signed until that year:
“Because Azerbaijan’s position is final and based on international law. Therefore, clauses containing territorial claims on Azerbaijan should be removed from the Armenian constitution. However, if these clauses are not removed from the constitution within three years, it means that Azerbaijan’s position is final and based on international law. “During this period, no peace agreement will be signed. This means that tension in the region may even continue with local clashes.”
“Armenia does not want to take steps to normalize relations. Pashinyan, on the one hand, points out that it is necessary to change the Constitution, but on the other hand, he is trying to slow down the process. It is clear that it may take some time to change the constitution and adopt a new one; a commission must be created, preparations for the referendum must be made, etc. It is possible to resolve this process in a few months, because the opposition is weak and cannot overthrow it, no one will overthrow it.
Or Pashinyan himself convinced Armenian society of the need to change the constitution and prepared it for it. So why slow down this process? It means that foreign centers have something to do with it, they do not want peace in the region. “This forces Pashinyan to slow down the peace process with Azerbaijan and buy new military equipment for the Armenian army,” the analyst stressed.
According to Shahinoglu, Azerbaijan will not be a spectator in this process:
“Because the purchase of long-range missiles by Armenia poses a threat to us. In this regard, Pashinyan must decide: either he becomes a tool in the hands of various power centers and plunges his country into the abyss, because the next conflict will still cost Armenia dearly, or based on reality, he will not implement constitutional changes after three years, remove the only obstacle to the peace agreement and give priority to the policy of normalizing relations with Azerbaijan. This will create good opportunities for peace and peace cooperation in the region.
Political commentator Turab Rzayev I think Pashinyan is interested in changing the Armenian constitution, but there are two points here:
“Either Pashinyan is prolonging this process because there is strong resistance to it in Armenian society, the opposition is against this change and by prolonging the time he is preparing society for this change, or he is simply intentionally delaying this process and not making any changes. He has no intention. This suggests that Pashinyan is not sincere in this matter.”
“Even though Armenia is creating obstacles to the implementation of the peace process, we do not intend to back down from our position. Azerbaijan will try in any case to force the Armenian side to change the constitution. Because this is an important factor for the long term and how sincere Armenia is will be known after the steps that Pashinyan will take in the coming period, namely, to put pressure on Azerbaijan or to neutralize the pressure from the opposition and civil society,” the expert concluded.
Merahim Nasib
