Afət Ziyadqızı
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he could use public pressure and political mechanisms to compel the opposition to support the adoption of a new constitution.
“Operative Information Center-OMM” reports that Sputnik Armenia carried the information.
Speaking after a government question-and-answer session in parliament, Pashinyan directly linked the peace process to constitutional change. The prime minister said he could declare that peace would be established if the constitution were amended. “If I declare that I guarantee a peace treaty will be signed and ratified after the constitutional amendments are adopted, the opposition cannot vote against them. Saying ‘no’ to the changes would look like voting for war, and could mean the opposition erases itself from the political scene,” he said.
Pashinyan stressed that abandoning the ideology of the Declaration of Independence was not related to any external factor, but was a necessary step toward institutionalizing peace.
Pashinyan did not rule out the authorities launching protests to break the opposition’s resistance. He said they would use public pressure to demand that the opposition vote in favor of the changes.
The prime minister added that if this mechanism also failed, snap parliamentary elections could be held. “This step could be taken only when there is complete certainty that the current opposition will not be represented in the next parliament. In such a situation, the opposition would vote in favor of the changes out of self-preservation,” he said. Pashinyan stressed, however, that the likelihood of snap elections had fallen sharply following recent political developments.
Earlier, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan did not rule out the ruling team resigning if voters reject the constitutional changes in the upcoming referendum.
