At today’s government session of August 18, during the presentation of the government’s 2021-2026 program of activities, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the issue of constitutional amendments.
“Previously we have expressed positions regarding constitutional amendments, but the 44-day war gave new impetus to the question related to constitutional amendments. And the question was raised as to how much the system of governance we have corresponds to the challenges present in our country. Of course, the Civil Contract party had previously expressed a position in this regard, but we also, taking into account the provisions in the preamble of our program that our task is to be generally more attentive to the various proposals coming from political and public circles, have formulated the topic of constitutional amendments in the program as an opportunity for open discussion,” said the Prime Minister.
According to Pashinyan, no presupposition has been placed in the program; the presupposition is that discussions must be held with various political and public circles. “Of course, the position of the ruling political force will be very important here, as a political force that has received the people’s vote of confidence. But I must also say that the position of the ruling political force should not be the only factor that influences this decision. That we have problems in the constitutional mechanisms, we also witnessed during the last 7-8 months. I want to give the simplest and most obvious example: when there was a danger of a military coup in the country, it took more than a month to regulate that situation. And during this time, what happened and what did not happen, and how it later affected the security environment of our country, unfortunately, we saw that already in the month of May. I think that the possibility of quickly regulating the situation under martial law is the obvious problem that exists in our constitutional arrangements. But does this mean that we should generally go toward changing the system of governance, or does it not mean that; the answer to that question probably needs to be found through more detailed discussions. Here we must be prepared that a public consensus will not be formed, there will be different opinions, and we must be able to move toward the most logical solutions,” said Pashinyan.
