The Nzhar constitutional movement has issued a statement titled “The rupture of self-determination and the crisis of statehood in Armenia”, proposing the creation of a new value-based foundation grounded in self-determination and the construction of an effective governance system.
At the center of this system, they propose the establishment of a State Council, envisioned as a nonpartisan guardian of the Constitution—a role they claim has been absent in Armenia over the past three decades.
The statement argues that the state has failed to fulfill its core responsibilities, including defending territorial integrity and ensuring the safety and right to life of its citizens.
“Our pillars of statehood—the Constitution, rule of law, free expression of public will, and institutional accountability—have been systematically violated and devalued at the highest levels of government,” the movement states.
It emphasizes that these violations are not isolated incidents but the logical outcome of a culture of irresponsible governance, shaped over the past thirty-five years and devoid of value-based principles. According to the statement, the roots of Armenia’s modern statehood crisis run deeper than the past three decades and lie in the absence of real national self-determination as the foundation of the state.
The First Republic of Armenia was born during a pivotal historical moment, but never fully matured as a product of self-determination. It collapsed under external military and political pressures, and in 1920, Armenia was occupied by Bolshevik Russia and Kemalist Turkey. This tragedy, the statement says, disrupted the natural development of statehood and deprived Armenia of a solid foundation for sovereignty.
The 1990 Declaration of Independence, though emerging from the context of the Karabakh Movement and proclaiming the reunification of Soviet Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, ultimately became a source of legal contradiction. The authorities neither legally formalized the unification nor recognized the Republic of Artsakh as an independent, self-determined entity.
This duality, the statement notes, became embedded in the foundations of the newly independent state. On the one hand, a legal system governed by the Constitution and laws was meant to be established; on the other, in practice, the authorities, acting as de facto guarantors of Artsakh’s security, often operated outside constitutional norms and legal procedures.
As a result, the rule of law was subordinated to political expediency from the outset. Since independence, Armenia has never developed a constitutional framework that enjoys public legitimacy. Constitutional texts and adoption processes have served to perpetuate ruling regimes, with the Constitution used as a tool for power retention, rather than as the supreme expression of the people's will.
Electoral fraud, political violence, and the systematic distortion of public will have stripped citizens of their political agency and right to participate in governance.
Consequently, state institutions have lost their legitimacy, and elections have ceased to function as instruments of democratic oversight.
Armenia’s foreign policy decisions, the statement continues, have been made solely to serve the personal interests of those in power, leading to economic, technological, military, and political dependence, massive regression, and defeat.
“The state failed to carry out its fundamental duty to protect territorial integrity and to ensure the security and life rights of its citizens,” the statement concludes.
It argues that the root causes of Armenia’s current statehood crisis include the absence of national self-determination, weakened sovereignty, crumbling legal foundations, reckless foreign policy, and a broader value and institutional crisis.
“Our proposed solution is to establish a new value-based foundation grounded in self-determination and to build an effective system of governance.
At its core would be the State Council, envisioned as a nonpartisan guardian of the Constitution—an institution missing from our political reality for the past thirty years. The self-determination institution must articulate the national-state interest whose absence has led to repeated failures in foreign and domestic policy.
This is not merely another reform, but a redefinition and reaffirmation of statehood. Join Nzhar if you share our vision,” the statement concludes.
*The Nzhar constitutional movement was founded on August 19 by entrepreneur and innovator Artashes Ikonomov, human rights advocate Nina Karapetyants, and civic activist Garegin Miskaryan.
Nina Karapetyants has announced her withdrawal from human rights activism, citing a serious decline in civil society. With 25 years of experience, she says both the human rights field and civil society are now on the verge of collapse.*
