Political analyst: In light of new realities, Yerevan may propose  advancing peace process with Baku without constitutional referendum

ArmInfo.In the new post-election situation, official Yerevan is now in a position to argue more substantively that the peace process with Azerbaijan  should proceed without the precondition of a domestic constitutional  referendum.

This assessment was shared on Facebook by Dr. Sergey  Minasyan, political scientist and Deputy Director of the Caucasus  Institute, as he analyzed the impact of the election results on  regional developments.

According to the political analyst, one of the most critical factors  is that the ruling "Civil Contract" party lacks the two-thirds  parliamentary majority required to initiate constitutional  amendments. "This significantly complicates the feasibility of  organizing a constitutional referendum. While other mechanisms to  initiate a referendum theoretically exist, their political cost could  be exceedingly high, and the outcome unpredictable—especially at a  time when socio-economic challenges may intensify following Moscow's  recent actions," Minasyan clarified.

He noted that while this shift might initially appear to be a major  hurdle for Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, every political crisis  also presents new opportunities. " In this new reality, Yerevan can  more justifiably argue that the peace process must advance without  the precondition of a referendum.  Concurrently, new windows of  opportunity are opening to accelerate certain tracks of the  Armenia-Turkey normalization process," the Caucasus Institute Deputy  Director said.

He suggested that this specific logic may have been reflected in  recent post-election contacts between Armenian and Azerbaijani  representatives. "The validity of this approach is further supported  by our recent discussions with European experts and EU  representatives, during which this interpretation of Armenia's new  political landscape was assessed as quite realistic and practical,"  the expert concluded.