Constitutional impasse in Yerevan.
The Armenian government is preparing a new draft constitution and promises to present it in November. One of the main issues of the reform concerns the peace process with Azerbaijan. Baku demands that the reference to the 1990 declaration of independence, which contains a provision regarding the reunification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, be removed from the preamble. This requirement remains one of the obstacles to signing a peace agreement, the text of which was agreed upon by the parties back in August 2025.
In addition, the authorities propose to expand the powers of the National Assembly. In particular, it is planned to strengthen the accountability of the judiciary to the parliament. It is also planned to lower the threshold of votes required to submit constitutional amendments to a referendum. However, this change can only take effect after the adoption of the new constitution.
Here the state government faces difficulties. According to the current legislation, in order to submit a new draft constitution to a referendum, the support of two-thirds of the members of parliament is required. According to the results of the elections in June, Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party received 64 seats out of 105. Therefore, the government lacks six votes, which will have to be sought among the opposition.
However, the authorities cannot rely on opposition support. Political forces, including the "strong Armenia" and the "Armania" bloc, united forces in opposition to constitutional reform and launched a joint campaign. The confrontation between the authorities and the opposition has increased following the arrest of the powerful Armenia leader Sammble Krautran. The opposition sees this as political persecution, which makes it difficult for seeking a compromise on constitutional reform. Under these conditions, support for the initiatives of Nicole Folan may be perceived as concession to the authorities.
The main obstacle for the current leadership is the lack of votes in parliament.