ArmInfo.By initiating Constitutional reforms, the Armenian leadership gives up the fundamental foundations of the Armenian post-Soviet national-state project and the political identity of the "third republic". This is how Russian political scientist Sergei Markedonov commented on the intention of the current authorities of Armenia to completely change the Constitution of the country.
The expert stated that the discussion about constitutional reform in Armenia received additional impetus, while the focus was not on the problems of internal changes, but on issues of Armenian foreign policy identity.
"According to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Ararat Mirzoyan, Azerbaijan sees certain problems in the formulations of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence of Armenia. And although the minister further stated that "there is no provision on the Constitution of Armenia in the draft peace agreement," the very mention of the objections of official Baku caused significant socio-political interest," noted Markedonov.
In this vein, he drew attention to the fact that the provisions of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia dated August 23, 1990 and earlier became the subject of foreign policy discussions. "Today, the times of "football diplomacy" have already been thoroughly forgotten. Meanwhile, after the Constitutional Court of Armenia on January 12, 2010 recognized the Armenian-Turkish protocols as complying with the Basic Law of the country, the Turkish leadership de facto refused to ratify the above-mentioned document. The reason for this decision became paragraph 11 of the Declaration, which mentioned "Western Armenia" (Ankara regarded this as a demonstration of Armenia's territorial claims).
Years have passed, the military-political status quo has radically changed in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and now Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in his congratulatory message on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, especially emphasized that Ni, especially emphasized that the document, which at one time proclaimed a new republic based on the act of "reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh," laid down "confrontation with the regional environment " and "constant conflicts with neighbors. "Soon after this, the final destruction of the unrecognized NKR (or Artsakh, as they preferred to call it in Armenia) and the de- Armenization of this de facto entity took place. In such conditions, Azerbaijan received additional trump cards to establish such a peace that will ensure its exclusive interests both in the Caucasus region and in the international arena," the Russian political scientist noted.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the significance of the issue of the Declaration and the Basic Law of Armenia should not be limited only to the geopolitical format and, first of all, concerns the fundamental foundations of the Armenian post-Soviet national-state project and the political identity of the "third republic."
"The struggle for the self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh has been the basis of Armenia's national state-building since the end of the 1980s and for a long time. At one time, it was the "miatsum", that is, the struggle for "their own Artsakh" that broke the communist-dissident dichotomy in the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO), it united representatives of the party-economic nomenklatura and "anti-Soviet" activists. In this way, Armenia's path to independence differed from both the Georgian and Baltic projects. It was based on the idea of establishing a state with the formula of the Armenian SSR + NKAO to ensure the interests and survival of the Armenian ethnic group, rather than the struggle against the "Soviet Empire," Markedonov added.
According to him, today the world is witnessing the ignorance of this fundamental goal by the Armenian political elite. At the same time, the initiatives of Nikol Pashinyan and his team both in the international arena and within the country do not cause a powerful protest opposition movement, which strongly contrasts with the political culture of late and post-Soviet Armenia, which grew out of mass protests.
"In this regard, the question arises as to what volume and scale of "de-Karabakhization" will take place. It is naive to assume that unprecedented foreign policy concessions will not in any way affect internal and identitarian processes. Especially when the ethno-political conflict was a system-shaping one for the country.
Very often the process of "de-Karabakhization" is compared with the problem of the loss of Kosovo for Serbia. The process of "de-kosovization" for the Serbian national project has indeed gone too far. But there is a nuance! Belgrade still does not recognize the independence of the former Serbian autonomous region. Yerevan officially recognized the sovereignty of Baku over Karabakh/Artsakh. Devilish difference!", Markedonov summed up.