PM: Armenia needs new constitution, parliamentary model of governance is most suitable

The world is changing, and our region will inevitably change as well, and the Republic of Armenia is also changing. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this in his remarks Friday at the Ministry of Justice, where the 2023 activity report of the department was discussed.

"This change can be treated in many different ways. But no matter how we view evolution, it is happening. Therefore, our position and approach should not be to stop this evolution—this is illogical in itself because by stopping the evolution, we will reach degradation—but to govern in accordance with the national interests of the Republic of Armenia.

In this regard, during one or two working discussions with the Minister of Justice, I recorded that in my opinion and also that of a number of colleagues—and I am voicing this opinion so that it becomes the subject of a wider discussion, the Republic of Armenia needs a new constitution; not constitutional amendments, but of a new constitution. Moreover, I want to emphasize in particular that usually when talking about these topics, the first focus is as follows: what [kind of] system of governance do we want to change? And for whom?

I want to emphasize that my publicly expressed position on this matter has not undergone any change. I am convinced, and time—of course, with phases of some doubts, but in the end—it proved that at least for me and for a number of colleagues, the parliamentary model of governance of Armenia, taking into account our democratic aspirations and strategies, is the most suitable for the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, I am now even more convinced that if we had not had a parliamentary model of governance in the post-war period of 2020, what perhaps many wanted could have happened to our statehood. It's not about this. I want us say right from this chapter that there is not much to change politically in the current model of governance, for example. It's a bit of a matter of the professional domain; for example,  what needs to be changed in the judicial system. I mean, politically, my issue is different.

First, I believe that, nonetheless, no matter how much we try to solve this issue in other ways, the Republic of Armenia should ultimately have a constitution which was adopted by the people of the Republic of Armenia with the results of a vote that does not give rise to doubts. This is also an important point of emphasis, by the way, related to legitimacy. Second, we must have a constitution that makes the Republic of Armenia more competitive and more viable in the new geopolitical and regional conditions.

Since the Ministry of Justice has, in fact, a very central role in both issues, I wanted to emphasize this so that we devote ourselves to such work in the near future. Also, let's send this message to our legal community that the activities of the legal community will obviously increase in the near future from the point of view of ensuring the external security of the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, I believe in the effectiveness of that approach, and I also see and am convinced that in the case of a professional approach, indeed, legal work can have quite great effects and results in terms of ensuring the legitimacy of those positions, even the legitimacy of our political decisions," added the PM of Armenia.