Khandanyan Comments on Aliyev’s Statement

I believe it is not worth getting into wordplay about new and old preconditions; they exist and they are preconditions. This was stated by KPA MP and Chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Relations Committee, Sargis Khandanyan, during a conversation with reporters in the National Assembly, commenting on Aliyev’s statement that the demands for changing the constitution and dissolving the Minsk Group are not new, having been present for 2.5 years.

“Our positions on these matters are very clear: the peace treaty completely resolves the issue of the constitution, if such an issue even existed, and we believe there is no such issue. Regarding the OSCE Minsk Group, we have stated that yes, we are ready to apply for its dissolution alongside or after the signing of the agreement. First, there must be what is called institutional peace established, some document regarding peace that allows us to abandon mechanisms related to conflict resolution. How it will be resolved remains to be seen; negotiations will show it, nevertheless we are trying to draw everyone's attention that now is the time,” he noted.

In response to the comment that it is now being stated that the new Constitution should not harm the peace process, whereas this was not declared before, Khandanyan said: “I do not see a contradiction in the idea that the text of the new constitution should not contradict peace and that the issue of constitutional changes is an internal affair of Armenia. There is no contradiction there. Naturally, the Constitution should reflect the real Armenia. As for at what stage and for what purposes we wanted to change the Constitution, the main goal has always been that the processes of adopting the Constitution in Armenia have always raised issues of legitimacy.”