Armenia responds to Azerbaijan's demands to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group and amend the Constitution
YEREVAN, March 19. /ARKA/. The Armenian Foreign Ministry commented on Azerbaijan's demands to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group and amend the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.
“The Republic of Armenia has announced on the highest level its readiness to consider the dissolution of the OSCE MG. Armenia simply wants to make sure that this would mean the de facto and de jure end to the conflict and not its shift to the territory of the Republic of Armenia under the narrative of the so-called ‘Western Azerbaijan,’” said Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan in an interview with Armenpress.
She recalled that the Constitutional Court's decision of September 26, 2024, clearly stated that the Constitution of Armenia does not contain any territorial claims against any country.
" On the contrary, the Republic of Armenia thinks that it is Azerbaijan’s Constitution that contains territorial claims against Armenia. But we also believe that the finalized text of the peace treaty solves this issue. Why? Because the finalized text stipulates that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity within the borders of the USSR republics, don’t have territorial claims against each other and are bound to not make such claims in the future," Badalyan said.
According to her, the text of the agreement underscores that the parties cannot cite their domestic legislation for failure to fulfill the terms of the agreement.
"As a reminder, article 5 of the Armenian constitution stipulates ‘in case of conflict between the norms of international treaties ratified by the Republic of Armenia and those of laws, the norms of international treaties shall apply’, i.e., the Armenian Constitution cannot be cited as an obstacle for not signing the peace agreement. On the contrary, the signing of the peace agreement is even the most effective way to address the concerns pertaining to the Constitution," Badalyan said.
About the Constitution
Earlier, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan stated that the strategic goal of adopting a new Constitution is the transition from the "relic period" of a nation without a state to the functioning of a state-oriented people.
On March 13, he noted that the discussions between Armenia and Azerbaijan do not address the issue of amending the Armenian Constitution or the timeline for this process.
At the same time, Pashinyan emphasized that the Constitution of Armenia does not have territorial claims against Azerbaijan or any other country, but the Constitution of Azerbaijan contains territorial claims against Armenia.
