The treaty was initialed, rather than signed, during the talks hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. In a separate joint declaration, Aliyev and Pashinian “acknowledged the need to continue further actions towards the signing and final ratification of the Treaty.”
“After appropriate changes are made to the Armenian constitution, the peace treaty can be signed at any time,” Aliyev told Azerbaijani media.
“I have no doubt that in the event of a change in the Armenian constitution -- and the Armenian side itself declares the need for such changes -- territorial claims against Azerbaijan will be removed from it,” he said. “Otherwise, it would, first of all, be disrespectful towards the United States.”
Aliyev specifically wants Yerevan to remove a constitutional preamble that mentions Armenia’s 1990 declaration of independence, which in turn cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The only legal way to do that is to adopt a new constitution.
Pashinian has repeatedly denied that the preamble amounts to territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Even so, he has pledged to try to enact a new constitution through a referendum. It remains to be seen whether he will hold the referendum simultaneously with Armenia’s next parliamentary elections due in June 2026.
Armenia’s leading opposition groups have vowed to scuttle the adoption of the new constitution which they believe is imposed by Baku. They say that Pashinian’s appeasement policy will not bring real peace and only encourages Aliyev to demand more concessions from Yerevan.