Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the "Armenia's internal and external security" panel discussion at the World Armenian Summit in Yerevan.

The Prime Minister answered many questions of the speaker and those present at the discussion, among which he referred to the challenges facing Armenia, the strategy of Real Armenia, foreign policy, topics related to EAEU and CSTO, development of Armenia-European Union cooperation, energy security of our country. Nikol Pashinyan, in response to the questions, also spoke about the signing of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan and the topics related to the unblocking of regional transport routes.

Referring to the signing of the peace agreement, the prime minister noted that according to the statements made by Azerbaijan, 80 percent of the project has been agreed upon."Let's sign what is agreed upon and move on to the rest. Something is not agreed upon. There is a view that the contract should not be signed until everything is agreed upon or all the articles are agreed upon. And I'm sorry, how many articles does that have to be?

Look, there is an announcement that a peace treaty will be signed once all the articles are agreed upon. And how many articles should there be in that contract? I will give an example: An article that needed to be decided upon was proposed by Azerbaijan just months ago. Can I explain this subtlety? Let's say there is x number of articles. Is it all agreed upon? One of the parties can say: there is one more article; we have to agree on this; we can agree on that too. It may turn out that one more article needs to be decided upon.

In other words, nowhere is it written that the peace treaty must have 25 articles and cannot have 17, 15, 14, or 13. The problem here lies in political will," the prime minister emphasized. According to Nikol Pashinyan, there is no peace agreement in the world or any agreement that answers all possible questions. "We say: can what is agreed become a framework, have a framework significance for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan? Yes, it can. We say, let's sign, let's go discuss the supposed articles 27, 28, 30, 40, because after signing it, the atmosphere, the environment, everything will change for the discussion of those articles," said Nikol Pashinyan, adding that after that, agreeing on other issues will be easier.

Referring to the assertions of the Azerbaijani side that there are territorial claims against Azerbaijan in the Constitution of Armenia, the Prime Minister noted. "What do they mean? We assume that they mean the reference of the preamble of the Armenian Constitution to the Declaration of Independence, which mentions the decision of the Nagorno-Karabakh National Council and the Supreme Council of Armenia on the reunification of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Is there such a thing in the Declaration of Independence? Yes, there is. Does that mean that this content is expressed in the Constitution? No such thing is written in the Constitution, which does not mean this content is described. Why do I think this way? Article 5 in the Declaration of Independence states that the Republic of Armenia creates armed forces, security bodies, etc., under the Supreme Council to ensure its security.

According to the Declaration of Independence, all power structures of Armenia are subject to the Supreme Council. However, in 1995, when the Constitution was adopted, all power structures were placed under the authority of the President of the Republic. Did the Constitution contradict the Declaration of Independence? Yes, it did. Therefore, the content of the Declaration of Independence, expressed in the Constitution, has been described.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, when we look at the Constitution of Azerbaijan, we see territorial claims against Armenia. "How come their Constitution refers to the State Independence Act of 1991, the State Independence Act, in turn, refers to the First Republic of Azerbaijan, 1918-1920, and the Declaration of the First Republic of Azerbaijan. In that declaration, it is written that Azerbaijan was founded on southern and eastern Transcaucasia territory. And besides, in 1919, Azerbaijan officially presented a map of its territory to the Entente states and the League of Nations, which includes the entire RA Syunik and Vayots Dzor marzes, part of Ararat marz, part of Tavush marz, part of Lori marz, part of Shirak marz. This is an apparent territorial claim against Armenia, but we do not raise this issue; we do not say let Azerbaijan change the Constitution to sign a peace treaty.

Why? Because there is an article in the agreed part of the peace treaty, neither party can invoke its domestic law to fail to fulfill its obligations under this treaty. We consider that question in that article is being resolved," the Prime Minister noted.

Speaking about the other assertion of the Azerbaijani side that no agreement can contradict the Constitution, the prime minister noted that when the deal is signed, it will be sent to the Constitutional Court to check its constitutionality."If the Constitutional Court decides that this agreement contradicts the Constitution, we will say, so it is so. However, if the Constitutional Court decides it does not contradict the Constitution, it will go to the National Assembly and be ratified. Once ratified by Article 5, Clause 3 of the current Constitution of Armenia, international treaties ratified in the Republic of Armenia take precedence over Armenian legislation. In other words, a ratified international treaty is higher than the law of the Republic of Armenia. If that treaty has been ratified, it does not contradict the Constitution. And the undertaken obligation, in particular, the commitment that the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan have no territorial claims against each other and undertake not to raise such territorial claims in the future, it becomes de jure, in fact, a provision with the highest legal force," the Prime Minister noted.

Nikol Pashinyan referred to the "Crossroads of Peace" project of the RA Government and the possibilities of unblocking regional transport communication routes. The Prime Minister emphasized that the meaning of the "Crossroads of Peace" project is about the readiness of the RA Government to open all possible roads passing through Armenia."We are ready to provide our roads in all possible places in Syunik, Tavush, Gegharkunik, Shirak, and Vayots Dzor. According to these principles, the streets should operate without bypassing or without harming or subordinating the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and jurisdiction of Armenia. In other words, like the roads of all the countries of the world," stressed the head of the government.

Referring to Azerbaijan's response to the recent statement by the Armenian side that if Armenia does not want to implement the projects on the territory of Iran, the Prime Minister once again officially stated that our country is ready to ensure the transition to Azerbaijan under precisely the same conditions as the Islamic Republic of Iran."Furthermore, we do not rule out certain simplifications of the procedures and perceive them in the logic of bilateralism. Azerbaijan says: well, you don't want it, we are going through Iran. We are not against them going through Iran; of course, it is a problem of Iran-Azerbaijan relations, but we are reassuming again, under the same conditions as the Islamic Republic of Iran provides that passage, we are also ready to do it under the same conditions. Moreover, in the bilateral logic, we are also prepared to make certain simplifications", the Prime Minister noted.