From Constitution to Academy of Sciences, what will Pashinyan have to deal with for sake of peace

The draft of the new Constitution is almost ready, but its preamble and first chapter, as well as a number of issues related to the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, have not yet been discussed. This was reported to journalists by the Minister of Justice of Armenia Srbuhi Galyan.

To calm the passions, she said that the prepared draft was purely preliminary, it would be submitted for public discussion and everyone would be able to make suggestions.

Of course, the journalists were most interested in the preamble and the fate of the claims it supports on the territory of Azerbaijan. Thanks to revanchist propaganda, this issue is presented as almost the cornerstone of the Armenian identity. Nikol Pashinyan's team takes a different approach. In any case, this follows from the answer of the Minister of Justice to the direct question whether the mention of Karabakh will be removed from the preamble of the Constitution.

"The government assumes that the peace and territorial integrity of Armenia are not threatened," Galyan said.

This means that the mention of the toxic Declaration of Independence, which declared the independence of Armenia, including the territories of Azerbaijan, will be deleted in the draft. It is still difficult to say whether it will remain in the final version. After the draft is submitted to the public without reference to the Declaration, the most serious processes will begin. The opposition has already taken measures to fuel nationalist sentiments, and Pashinyan's team will have a lot of problems with the preamble. The fact that the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia really depends on this seemingly inconspicuous point in the Basic Law, the politically active masses do not want to think about it. The calculation can be made for the politically inactive part of society, which makes up the majority. In the end, everything will depend on the outcome of the referendum. Including the fate of the peace treaty. Baku has repeatedly pointed out to its neighbors that while maintaining territorial claims to Azerbaijan, peace will not be signed, and now the choice is up to the Armenian people.

In March 2025, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced plans to hold a constitutional referendum in 2027. Initially, Pashinyan claimed that the changes to the Constitution were solely an internal matter of Armenia. This is true, but not when this document affects the territorial integrity of a neighboring state. Such provisions automatically turn Armenia's internal affairs into the subject of international discussions. It is no coincidence that, speaking about the "issue of domestic policy," Pashinyan nevertheless admitted that this issue cannot but have regional and international influence. And a month after the previous statements, the Prime Minister of Armenia stated in Parliament that the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia should not contain references to the Declaration of Independence.

Everything is simple. The claims to Karabakh will remain unchanged in the preamble. If claims on Karabakh remain, no peace treaty will be signed. And if a peace treaty is not signed, the emerging positive trends in relations between the two countries will not continue, because Azerbaijan does not intend to endlessly engage in charity, opening roads and providing cheap oil products to its neighbor, who considers Azerbaijani lands his own at the legislative level.

However, the Constitution will be only the first step in humanizing the Armenian national idea. Without this, even in the absence of formal claims against Azerbaijan, it will be impossible to talk about the complete elimination of the Armenian threat. This threat will persist in the minds, in the mentality, in the ideological cushion on which generations will be brought up. She will move there from research rooms, from academic circles, which are not going to give up their positions yet.

The Armenian government should address this important issue as well. Armenian science should stop digging into foreign lands, writing scientific papers and publishing books about the "Armenian history" of the territories of Azerbaijan. The foundation of the thirty-year occupation, the crimes of Armenians against the Azerbaijani people, unprecedented cruelty and cave hatred were just such books that continue to be published in Armenia or commissioned by Armenia. 

Just on Monday, the Armenian Academy of Sciences hosted the presentation of another similar publication published in Italy. Its authors are a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography and, inexplicably, an associate professor at an Italian university who became involved in this project. The book dedicated to the "ethnography of the Second Karabakh War" has already been called a scientific achievement in Armenian studies. The content and idea were presented very abstrusely at the presentation, but it was not difficult to understand that Armenian science continues its efforts to promote, primarily to an international audience, the idea of "Armenian" belonging to the sovereign historical territories of Azerbaijan and the pseudo-martyrdom of Armenians in the light of the history of the Karabakh conflict and the 44-day war.

The Armenian Academy of Sciences is not at all a scientific, but a political structure. The statement issued by the Armenian National Academy of Sciences in June 2022, when the future of Karabakh, which remained under occupation, became less rosy to the Armenians, is very significant in this regard. The Armenian academics stated that Karabakh cannot remain part of Azerbaijan in any status and only Armenia is "the guarantor of the security of Artsakh and the right of its people to self-determination." The Armenian Academy of Sciences considered that it was in no way possible to abandon these goals, and offered the government its "professional advice to government authorities."

Surely, the Armenian Academy of Sciences has something to do and what to focus on in the interests of the Armenian state. The far-fetched and criminally falsified history for political purposes has already caused irreparable harm to Armenia, depriving it of many opportunities and turning Armenians into a threat to their neighbors that cannot remain unanswered. The goals set have not been achieved, and it's time to stop this fuss and do something that can really transform the Armenians from a diasporic people without a specific address into a nation capable of statehood.