Armenia could face a period of serious political developments this autumn, and the opposition should begin preparing now, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an opposition lawmaker from the Hayastan parliamentary faction, said during a briefing with reporters at the National Assembly.
According to Saghatelyan, the expected developments will center on constitutional amendments, which he argued the ruling party cannot pass with its current parliamentary majority. He said the opposition would not support any proposal to amend the Constitution if it is brought before parliament, Sputnik Armenia reported.
“As far as we are concerned, I rule out the possibility that anyone will join that initiative,” Saghatelyan said.
The current National Assembly has 105 members, meaning that at least 70 votes are required to approve constitutional amendments. According to the Central Election Commission’s final results, the Civil Contract party holds 64 seats, meaning it would need six additional votes to reach the constitutional majority required to initiate the process.
Saghatelyan argued that the authorities are using public statements to turn society against the opposition so they can later, through pressure, blackmail, and repression, fulfill what he described as Azerbaijan’s demands.
“I believe that Nikol Pashinyan and the Civil Contract party have already launched this process. Anyone who does not support fulfilling Azerbaijan’s demands will be portrayed as an anti-state force,” the lawmaker said.
He also claimed that the prime minister had not received sufficient parliamentary backing to implement his promises and might seek to achieve his objectives through other means.
“They will try to break resistance through blackmail, threats, arrests and detentions in order to satisfy Azerbaijan’s demands,” he added.
According to Saghatelyan, the opposition cannot limit itself to parliamentary work alone.
“Our strength in parliament is not enough to achieve change. It must be reinforced by the strength of the people in the public squares of the Republic of Armenia,” he said.
The lawmaker also reiterated his earlier proposal to establish a “No” front that would unite all parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forces opposed, in his words, to the agenda being imposed on Armenia. He claimed that, under the guise of border delimitation and demarcation, the authorities are preparing to hand over additional territories to Azerbaijan.
“This autumn, Armenia is clearly facing difficult developments, and the opposition’s main agenda must be to counter them. Nikol Pashinyan is also not prepared to pursue this agenda with this political baggage, with this vote, with these elections and with what he describes as obviously stolen mandates. That is why it will be quite difficult for him,” Saghatelyan concluded.
In late March 2025, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Armenian government planned to hold a referendum on adopting a new Constitution in 2027. At the time, he said constitutional reform was exclusively a domestic issue, although it could not be isolated from regional and international influences. In April, the prime minister also told parliament that the new Constitution should not contain a reference to Armenia’s Declaration of Independence.
For its part, Azerbaijan has consistently insisted that Armenia amend its Constitution, arguing that it contains provisions concerning the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with the Republic of Armenia.
The preamble to Armenia’s Constitution refers to the country’s Declaration of Independence, which states that it is based on the joint decision adopted on December 1, 1989, by the Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh on the reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh.
