Galian is the current head of the Constitutional Reform Council that was formed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in 2022 with the initial aim of proposing amendments to the current Armenian constitution. Pashinian changed the ad hoc body’s mandate last May, saying that it must draft a “new constitution” from scratch before January 2027. The move came as the Azerbaijani leaders continued to make the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia conditional on a change of its constitution which they say contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
Baku 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 enact an entirely new constitution through a referendum.
Former Justice Grigor Minasian said in August that the referendum will likely take place in 2027. Galian, who replaced Minasian in November, indicated that it could be held earlier.
“Our task is to have a new draft constitution before the elections,” she told a news conference.
“As a new minister, I believe that I must assume the duty and responsibility to ultimately draft a new constitution,” she said.
The Constitutional Reform Council has still not met to discuss the matter. One of its members, civic activist Daniel Ioannisian, said late last year that even the January 2027 deadline set by Pashinian is not realistic.
Pashinian rejected last month Baku’s continuing demands for a change of Armenia’s constitution. He cited a ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court that articles of the constitution take precedence over the reference to the 1990 declaration.
But Pashinian has also criticized the declaration, claiming that it poses a serious threat to Armenia’s national security.