PM Pashinyan allows for possible constitutional referendum in Armenia

YEREVAN. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has suggested holding a constitutional referendum.

"Where is the point, the moment when we turn from a non-state people into a state people? This moment is the constitutional referendum," Pashinyan said in an interview with the Public Radio of Armenia, which showed its abstract on a social network.

Pashinyan said on January 19 that Armenia needed a new constitution. "The Republic of Armenia needs a new constitution. Not constitutional amendments but a new constitution. We need a constitution to make the Republic of Armenia more competitive and more viable under the new geopolitical and regional conditions," he said.

"Baku and Yerevan can make peace if Armenia drops territorial claims against Azerbaijan and amends its constitution and other laws and regulations," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said earlier on Thursday.

The preamble of the current Armenian constitution refers to Armenia's Declaration of Independence, which links Armenia's future to Nagorno-Karabakh.

"We should settle our relations by the Declaration [of Independence]," Pashinyan told the Public Radio.