Armenia’s push for a new constitution, which Azerbaijan has demanded before it signs a peace agreement, is stalled in parliament because the ruling Civil Contract party cannot call a referendum without opposition votes it does not have, as 13 opposition forces have signed a joint statement against the draft, which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said will be published later this month, reports Zartonk Media.
Civil Contract won the June election with 64 of parliament’s 105 seats, short of the two-thirds majority needed to put a draft constitution to a referendum, so it needs at least 6 opposition votes. Only 2 of the 13 signatories sit in parliament, Strong Armenia with 29 seats and the Armenia Alliance with 12. Speaker Ruben Rubinyan asked them to let the draft go to a referendum while keeping their right to campaign against it. “Let them have the opportunity, let the people decide,” he said.
On October 28 Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan urged the opposition to allow the referendum and raised the possibility that the government would resign if voters rejected the draft. Rubinyan said afterwards that resignation in that scenario is not an agreed position within the ruling party.
Both factions refused. “People did not vote for us so that we would vote in favor of putting this draft to a referendum,” Armenia faction leader Anna Grigoryan said on October 30. She said a new constitution would not rule out further demands from Azerbaijan, and did not rule out discussing other amendments if the preamble stayed unchanged.
Speaking in parliament on November 2, Pashinyan said public pressure on the opposition would build and that the ruling majority should lead it. Samvel Karapetyan, who leads Strong Armenia, the larger of the 2 opposition factions, was arrested two days later.
Thirteen opposition forces met at Karapetyan’s residence on the evening of November 4, hours after the arrest, and signed a joint statement announcing a nationwide consolidation. Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court remanded him in custody for one month the following day.
The statement, read out by his nephew Narek Karapetyan, says the signatories are setting aside differences of approach and disagreements on a number of issues to unite around 4 priorities: rejecting the imposition of an “Aliyev constitution,” peace without unilateral concessions or territorial losses, protecting national identity and the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church, and restoring democratic freedoms and rights. It calls on other political forces and public figures to join, and does not say how the consolidation will be organized or what its members plan to do.
The signatories are Strong Armenia, the Armenia Alliance, Prosperous Armenia, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Republican Party of Armenia, the Armenian National Congress, Heritage, the Hayakve initiative, Country to Live, Democratic Alternative, New Era, the Freedom Party and Hayastany Yes Em. They include forces associated with Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan and Gagik Tsarukyan.
Pashinyan dismissed the gathering at a briefing on November 5, saying one person had been missing from it. “I am referring to Ktrich Nersisyan. Had he been there too, the picture would have been complete,” he said, using the secular name of Catholicos Karekin II. He added that the group could then have brought about a revolution within days.
He also attacked the signatories over the case against Karapetyan. “There is a case involving the misuse of 65 billion drams or 64 billion drams, and they come out and say, ‘Aliyev, Azerbaijan’. Whatever happens, they say, ‘Aliyev, Azerbaijan’,” Pashinyan said. “These people are not only anti-government but also anti-state figures who merely want to cover up what they have plundered.” Asked whether opposition unity could produce a movement that changes the government, he said that was a question for the people of Armenia to answer.
The phrase “Aliyev constitution” refers to the opposition’s charge that the draft is being written to meet Azerbaijan’s demands. Baku wants Armenia’s constitution changed before it signs the peace agreement the two countries initialed in Washington on August 8, 2025, and objects to the preamble’s reference to the 1990 Declaration of Independence, which cites a 1989 decision on the reunification of Armenia and Artsakh. Azerbaijan reads that as a territorial claim, Armenian officials dispute that reading, and the initialed agreement has not entered into force.
The government says the content is Armenia’s own, that a new constitution was in Civil Contract’s election program, and that voters will settle it in a referendum. Pashinyan has called the Declaration of Independence anti-state. The opposition says both the timing and the substance come from Baku. Neither side is yet arguing over a text voters can read, because the draft has not been published.
Karapetyan was arrested after searches of his residence and dozens of other locations. He and 35 others are accused of abuse of official authority in the private sector, large-scale embezzlement of entrusted property and large-scale money laundering at Electric Networks of Armenia, the utility he acquired in 2015, and the Investigative Committee puts the damage at more than 64.585 billion drams, about $179 million at the Central Bank of Armenia’s November 5 rate. He was under house arrest at the time, from a case opened in June 2025 after he publicly sided with the Armenian Apostolic Church during its confrontation with Pashinyan. He has not been convicted in either case.
Strong Armenia said Pashinyan cannot hinder national unity, and that the signatories will not allow a constitution dictated by Aliyev to be imposed on Armenia.
