Signing the Peace Agreement with the already agreed articles, will significantly facilitate the resolution of the non-agreed issues. The already agreed parts of the draft Peace Agreement provide tools for that: one of them is the diplomatic relations to be established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the second is the joint Armenia-Azerbaijan commission to oversee the implementation of the Peace Agreement. I mean, the existence of de jure peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan by signing the proposed Agreement, and the establishment of diplomatic relations, will result in changing the overall atmosphere and the perception of our Governments and Peoples, which will significantly facilitate the solution of the remaining issues, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated durin his speech at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters.
"Azerbaijan, however, insists that the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia is an obstacle to the peace Agreement, because it allegedly contains territorial claims on Azerbaijan.
Without going into details, let me say that there is nothing of this kind in our Constitution, there are no territorial claims on Azerbaijan, and we can provide detailed written proofs regarding this to all our international partners concerned.
Moreover, it is the Constitution of Azerbaijan that contains territorial claims on the Republic of Armenia and we can present written argumentation on this as well to all our international partners concerned.
But pay attention: we do not consider the Constitution of Azerbaijan as an obstacle to the Peace Agreement for the simple reason, that the agreed part of the draft Peace Agreement contains wording that solves the problem and that wording is as follows: “None of the Parties may invoke the provisions of its internal legislation as justification for its failure to perform the present Agreement”.
Therefore, the signing of the Agreement will address the concerns of both Armenia and Azerbaijan and will create legal guarantees for addressing them fundamentally. When we examine the agreed text of the Peace Agreement in terms of compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, we see the following picture: Under the Constitution of Armenia, agreements that contradict the Constitution may not be ratified.
And as in other cases, after signing the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan, we must submit it to the Constitutional Court to verify the compliance of the Agreement with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.
If our Constitutional Court decides that the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan is in contradiction with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia (even though our experts assure that it is not likely to happen), then we will face a specific situation where constitutional changes will be needed for the sake of achieving peace.
And if our Constitutional Court decides that the Agreement complies with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, then there will be no barriers for ratification in the Parliament of Armenia, and here an extremely important circumstance comes in.
Under Paragraph 3 of Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, ratified international agreements have precedence over the domestic legislation of the Republic of Armenia, and therefore, after the signing and ratification of the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan, theoretically, even if there were laws that could be interpreted as containing territorial claims, these documents would be subordinate to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Agreement and would automatically have no legal force. The same logic would apply to Azerbaijan of course.
Honorable President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you can see, here is peace so close to us and all we need to do, is reach out and take it. It is not easy for either Armenia or Azerbaijan, because each of us has our own truth and the debate over those truths has led to enmity, casualties, and wars. The pain is very deep and intense.
But we must now focus on peace, because peace is the only truth understandable to the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan. And this truth will open our eyes and shut down the sources of enmity, and we will all look to the future," Pashinyan said.
