Parliamentary opposition calls unacceptable artificial opposition between Constitution and Declaration of Independence of Armenia

YEREVAN, 17 October. /ARKA/. In a statement adopted today the Armenian parliamentary opposition says it considers unacceptable artificial attempts to contrast the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.

The statement was read out by Gegham Manukyan, MP from Hayastan (Armenia) opposition bloc, at a parliamentary hearings on the Rules of Procedure of the Armenian and Azerbaijani State Commissions on Border Delimitation and a draft statement of the National Assembly ‘On the Enduring Significance of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia’.

The preamble to the Armenian Constitution cites the Declaration of Independence, which in turn refers to the 1989 act of unification adopted by the legislative bodies of then Soviet Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (which was part of Azerbaijan).

Azerbaijan interprets this as Armenia's territorial claim against it. Azerbaijani president has regularly stated in recent months that Baku will not sign a peace treaty with Yerevan unless this and other unspecified Armenian legal acts are cancelled.

In a late September decision, the Armenian Constitutional Court ruled that  the reference to the 1990 Declaration ‘does not refer to any principle or purpose that is not enshrined in the Constitution, reiterating in fact the Armenian government's statement that it recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

According to the opposition';s statement, the attempts of distorting and belittling the role of the Declaration of Independence are inadmissible.

It also argues that the nationwide values and ideas laid down in the Declaration are the basis of the country's security, and any encroachment against these values is considered a particularly grave offence against Armenia.-0-