Beyond amendment, a shift in paradigm

Vaհe H Apelian

Recently I read an article in The Atlantic about the American Constitution. The cover of the magazine reads Amend it. But the headline of the article is different (see the link below). The central issue of the article may be summed up in the following sentence, “one of the Constitution’s founding purposes was to prevent change. But another was to allow for change without violence.” 

I am for the notion that a constitution allows change, surely not change brought about by violence. I am for, not only Armenia amends its Constitution, but also shifts its historic paradigm.

I unequivocally state that the opposition to the PM’s REAL ARMENIA Ideology, implies not being in tune with the historic course of Armenia since May 28, 1918, which has been the preservation of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan has wrapped it in REAL ARMENIA slogan for ease of propagation.

The central tenet of the REAL ARMENIA ideology pertains to equating the Motherland with, and restricting it to the current internationally recognized Armenian state — i.e., the 29,743 sq kms; a map of which the prime minister wears as his lap pin. And yes, everything that falls outside that area, the PM views it in the context of preserving the 29,743 sq. km. internationally recognized Republic of Armenia. Therein lies the PM”s emotional outburst to the lady’s claim that she advocates another map, not the map of Armenia, the one the PM wears and is passing around.

Those in Armenia, especially the leaders of the opposition, who ostensibly oppose the PM’s REAL IDEOLOGY and verbalize against the Real Armenia Ideology, implying that they have another map in mind, well beyond, the 29,743 sq. km. Republic of Armenia, are not being truthful to their constituents and to those in Diaspora who espouse them. As a matter of fact, they were de facto proponents of that ideology when they were in power, and will continue to be the proponent of that ideology once they regain power.  The real goal of the opposition leadership in Armenia is not to rescind the Real Armenia ideology. It would not surprise me that the real goal is to reclaim the beyond the law status they had carved for themselves and were immensely profiting from it, by theft. Then came the 2018 Revolution, the Velvet Revolution, led by Nikol Pashinyan that upended the status quo.

From get go, I have found the Soviet era preamble of the Declaration of Independence poorly worded. I have especially the following statement in the preamble in mind: “Based on the December 1, 1989, joint decision of the Armenian SSR Supreme Council and the Artsakh National Council on the "Reunification of the Armenian SSR and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh;" I propose removing that clause, as a Declaration of Independence amendment.

Declarations of independence are supposed to be about lofty goals, but not about policy. Mexico’s Declaration of Independence is about their breaking away from Spanish colonialism. The American Declaration of Independence is about breaking away from the harsh and unjust British monarchic rule. There is no word in Armenia’s Declaration of Independence from what Armenia declared independence and why.

Armenia is confronting a shift in its historical paradigm, well beyond amending the Constitution & the Declaration of Independence. 

I understand that the Declaration of Independence - DOI - will not be amended but will rbe removed from the constitution. At this moment, the DOI makes the first article of the constitution and it should. I do not find appropriate that Armenia’s Constitution will have no reference to its Declaration of Independence, which will remain as an orphaned document, but live nonetheless.

Armenia will have come to grips. Will it be the Republic that lives in peace with its neighbors or not? I do not recommend Armenia be the Republic that holds on to an orphaned policy document that calls for reunification with a historic Armenian province Artsakh, that is part of Azerbaijan. Orphaned it may be, but it is a living a document, Armenia cannot ignore it, even if it does not include it in its constitution.

Armenia is confronting for a historic shift in paradigm, well beyond amending its constitution. The shift of paradigm is to be the Republic that lives in peace with its neighbors as codified in its Declaration of Independence and in its Constitution.

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Link: The Atlantic’s October Cover Story: Jill Lepore on How the Radical Legal Philosophy of Originalism Has Undermined the Process of Constitutional Evolution https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2025/09/the-atlantics-october-cover-jill-lepore-amend-it/684155/