{"id":37923,"date":"2024-02-20T11:58:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T11:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=37923"},"modified":"2024-02-21T11:41:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T11:41:03","slug":"azerbaijans-constitution-and-potential-territorial-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/verified\/2024\/02\/20\/37923\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan’s Constitution And Potential Territorial Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 31, the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, declared<\/a> that certain clauses in Azerbaijan’s Constitution must be changed in a reciprocal manner. <\/span><\/p>\n

This statement was made following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s announcement about adopting a new Armenian Constitution, which sparked a debate.<\/span><\/p>\n

On January 18, 2024, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, announced<\/a> that the country needs a new Constitution. According to the Prime Minister, the new Constitution must enable the Republic of Armenia to become more competitive and sustainable in the new geopolitical and regional conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following this announcement, the members of the opposition in the National Assembly claimed<\/a> that the reason for proposing amendments to the Constitution was due to the demands made by President Ilham Aliyev during peace treaty negotiations with Azerbaijan. <\/span><\/p>\n

On January 23, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, refuted<\/a> the claims. However, he also pointed out that Armenia had drawn Azerbaijan’s attention to a similar issue in their legal framework, which starts with the Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simonyan and Mirzoyan did not elaborate on which specific points of Azerbaijan’s Constitution or other documents they found concerning. <\/span><\/p>\n

In response to their statements, Media.am’s fact-checking team, “Verified,” analyzed these documents to identify potential issues related to Armenia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can be drawn from the Azerbaijani Constitution and related documents?<\/span><\/p>\n

What do the Constitution of Azerbaijan and attached documents state?<\/h3>\n

The Constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted<\/a> in November 1995. According to the document<\/a> on the website of the President of Azerbaijan, the Constitution was formulated based on the principles established in the Constitutional Act<\/a> on State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan adopted in August 1991.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second article of this act states:<\/span> “The Republic of Azerbaijan is the successor of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which existed from May 28, 1918 to April 28, 1920.”<\/p>\n

The document emphasizes that it is also based on the state’s Declaration of Independence, created in 1918.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1918, the Declaration<\/a> of Independence was the only document that mentioned the specific territory of Azerbaijan.<\/span><\/p>\n

“From now on, the peoples of Azerbaijan are recognized as bearers of sovereign rights, and Azerbaijan, made up of Eastern and Southern Transcaucasia, is a full-fledged, independent state,” the declaration states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Eastern Transcaucasia in Russian Empire, map by Robert Hewson, 2001, p. 211<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

As per the map, Eastern Transcaucasia included the current Syunik marz of Armenia and certain parts of Gegharkunik and Vayots Dzor regions.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is noteworthy that starting from the early days of the establishment of the Armenian and Azerbaijani republics in 1918, there were territorial disputes<\/a> between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides, which eventually led to armed conflicts. These conflicts stopped only in 1920 upon the establishment of the Soviet power in both countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was during these armed clashes that the Azerbaijani delegation presented its proposals on the republic’s borders at the Paris Conference of 1919. Their territorial demands<\/a> included the current Syunik marz and parts of Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik, and Tavush marzes in Armenia.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Paris Conference in 1919, a map was presented that showed the territorial claims of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

At the Paris Conference in 1919, a map<\/a> was presented that showed the territorial claims of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

 As can be seen from the map presented, Azerbaijan had territorial claims not only to Armenia but also to Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u053f\u0578\u0576\u0586\u0565\u0580\u0561\u0576\u057d\u056b\u0576 \u0576\u0565\u0580\u056f\u0561\u0575\u0561\u0581\u057e\u0561\u056e \u0584\u0561\u0580\u057f\u0565\u0566\u056b \u0574\u0565\u056f \u0561\u0575\u056c \u057f\u0561\u0580\u0562\u0565\u0580\u0561\u056f \u0561\u057c\u056f\u0561 \u0567 \u0561\u0564\u0580\u0562\u0565\u057b\u0561\u0576\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576 \u00abIRS heritage\u00bb \u0561\u0574\u057d\u0561\u0563\u0580\u056b\u055d \u00ab\u0531\u0564\u0580\u0562\u0565\u057b\u0561\u0576\u056b \u0564\u0565 \u0586\u0561\u056f\u057f\u0578 \u057a\u0565\u057f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576 \u0561\u0576\u056f\u0561\u056d\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576 \u0573\u0561\u0576\u0561\u0579\u0574\u0561\u0576 \u057a\u0561\u057f\u0574\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0578\u0582\u0576\u0568 \u0553\u0561\u0580\u056b\u0566\u056b \u056d\u0561\u0572\u0561\u0572\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576 \u056f\u0578\u0576\u0586\u0565\u0580\u0561\u0576\u057d\u056b \u0568\u0576\u0569\u0561\u0581\u0584\u0578\u0582\u0574\u00bb \u0570\u0578\u0564\u057e\u0561\u056e\u0578\u0582\u0574<\/a>, \u0578\u0580\u0568 \u0576\u057e\u056b\u0580\u057e\u0561\u056e \u0567 \u0531\u0564\u0580\u0562\u0565\u057b\u0561\u0576\u056b \u0564\u0565\u0574\u0578\u056f\u0580\u0561\u057f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576 \u0570\u0561\u0576\u0580\u0561\u057a\u0565\u057f\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576 100-\u0561\u0574\u0575\u0561\u056f\u056b\u0576\u0589<\/p>\n

Another version of the map presented at the conference can be found in the article<\/a> “The History of the Recognition of De facto State Independence of Azerbaijan during the Paris Peace Conference,” featured in the Azerbaijani “IRS Heritage” magazine. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

 The  map<\/a>  presented at the Paris Conference in 1919, depicting the territorial claims of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

This article is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the democratic republic of Azerbaijan. It is worth noting that the Azerbaijani delegation at the time saw the present-day territories of Syunik, Vayots Dzor, Tavush, and Gegharkunik marzes in the Republic of Armenia as part of Azerbaijan.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Azerbaijani Constitution, which references their 1918 declaration of independence, their borders encompass South and Eastern Transcaucasia. This includes certain territories of neighboring countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lusine Voskanyan<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 31, the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, declared that certain clauses in Azerbaijan’s Constitution must be changed in a reciprocal manner. This statement was made following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s announcement about adopting a new Armenian Constitution, which sparked a debate. On January 18, 2024, the Prime Minister of Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":37840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-verified","author_posts-lusine-voskanyan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37923"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37934,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37923\/revisions\/37934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}