Independence, sovereignty, statehood are the indispensable institutions for maintaining our identity and autonomy, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a message on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.
The message reads:
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
On August 23, 1990, the Supreme Council of Soviet Armenia adopted the Declaration of Independence. With this document, the people of Armenia announced to the world about their desire to have an independent state and recorded their will.
Later, in 1995, the reference to the Declaration of Independence found a place and is still present in the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.
But, contrary to various interpretations, this does not mean that the entire content of the Declaration of Independence is included in the Armenian Constitution and the content of these two documents are identical.
The clearest evidence of this is Article 5 of the Declaration, which states: “In order to ensure its security and the integrity of its borders, the Republic of Armenia creates its own armed forces, idomestic troops, state and public security bodies under the Supreme Council.”
Despite the wording of the Declaration, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, Police forces, state and public security bodies are not subject to the country’s Parliament. They were subject the President until the 2015 constitutional amendments, and after April 2018, they are subject to the Government.
This directly and unequivocally demonstrates that only those provisions of the Declaration of Independence are expressed in the Armenian Constitution, which are expressed directly, verbatim and literal, and any other interpretation is simply not appropriate.
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
Independence, sovereignty, statehood are the indispensable institutions for maintaining our identity and autonomy, and on August 23, 1990, we made the first attempt to deal with these institutions and ideology after a long pause. The ideas and perceptions of all of us, the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, about independence and statehood have changed significantly since those times, and I dare say they have become deeper and more comprehensive.
Independence, statehood, citizenship are completely different formulas of thinking, completely different dimensions, and we step on those dimensions, adopt and develop these formulas, right now.
