Armenia Brings Border-Related Document to the Constitutional Court. What About Azerbaijan?

In August, they agreed on the Charter regarding the joint activities of commissions on delimitation and border security issues with Azerbaijan. On September 24, Armenia announced that the Constitutional Court would discuss whether the document complies with their Constitution.

In Azerbaijan, it is still unclear how the legal mechanism related to the aforementioned Charter will be carried out. Additionally, the text of the document has not been disclosed to the public.

Article 2 of the "Law on the State Border of the Republic of Azerbaijan" states that the state's border is determined by the decisions of the National Assembly. Moreover, changes to state borders can only be resolved through a referendum.

The law also states that borders with Azerbaijan's neighboring states that are not formalized are determined by interstate agreements. In this case, the principles of state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the inviolability of the state border must be upheld.

MP Fazil Mustafa told the Turan news agency  that since he is not familiar with the document, he has no information on the format in which this issue will be discussed in Azerbaijan: “In any case, the exchange of territories and territorial issues can only be considered in a referendum. The matter of whether such charters comply with the Constitution is resolved by the Constitutional Court. However, I am not aware of how this is envisaged in the content of the Charter itself.”

According to the deputy, these documents are handled confidentially, and no official statement has been made yet: “Probably, this is not yet appropriate because these processes need to proceed in a certain way. If a statement is made, then it can be determined where it can be considered. There are issues that are handled in a referendum, issues that are handled only in the National Assembly as prescribed by the Constitution, and issues that can be considered by the Constitutional Court.”

F. Mustafa noted that if such an agreement exists, it can be considered: “If there is no such agreement, the Charter can remain as it is. That is, it depends on the intended negotiations.”

Legal expert Fuad Agayev also told Radio Azadliq that it is impossible to comment on the legal procedure without looking at the text of the document: “To assess it legally, one needs to be familiar with the text of the Charter. To say whether the document needs to be brought to parliamentary discussion for ratification or not, its text needs to be examined.”

For this reason, Hafiz Hasanov, the head of the "Law and Development" Public Union, also finds it difficult to say something specific about the issue: “But what I generally understand is that in Azerbaijan, this is not regulated by the Constitution. That is, there is no need to necessarily bring it to the Constitutional Court for discussion to be given an opinion. However, I do not know what the rules are.”