False claims that text of Armenia’s new Constitution has been published, and rebuttal
Fake news about Armenia’s Constitution
Opposition politicians in Armenia and some local media reported that the new Constitution had been published on Sahmanadrutyun․com.
Artashes Ikonomov, co-founder of the Njhar constitutional movement, reported it on social media and described it as his “sensational discovery”. However, the Ministry of Justice quickly denied the report.
Armenia has been working on a new Constitution for a long time. However, the final version has not yet appeared on any official platform.
Fact-checking journalists analysed all the material claiming that the new Constitution had been published. They reported who spread the fake news and which media outlets carried it.
They also examined the website that published the text presented as the new Constitution. They identified errors in the fake document.
- ‘From crisis management to stability’: Pashinyan unveils new government programme
- More than 32,000 applications for Armenian citizenship in a year: who is applying and why
- ‘We have proved that Armenia is not a province, but a crossroads’ — Pashinyan
What Ikonomov claims
Artashes Ikonomov wrote on his Facebook page:
“The draft Constitution is available on Sahmanadrutyun.com. To understand what changes have been made, you need to read the entire draft.”
He urged people to read specific provisions of the draft and share the information so that “people know what awaits them in the future”.
Nina Karapetyants, who also co-founded the Njhar constitutional movement, published the same text on her Facebook page shortly afterwards. In the parliamentary elections, held in June, she ran first on the list of the political force “Against All”. This meant she would have become prime minister if the party had won the election.
Neither Karapetyants nor Ikonomov deleted their posts after the authorities officially denied the information they had published.
Moreover, Artashes Ikonomov published another social media post in which he described the Justice Ministry’s statement as a “disinformation denial”:
“The Ministry of Justice is spreading disinformation because it claims that disinformation is being spread on the Sahmanadrutyun.com website. I officially declare that this is the genuine draft of the new Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.”
Nina Karapetyants also stood by her position. Many social media users wrote in the comments under her post that the published information was an obvious fake. Karapetyants responded:
“What exactly is disinformation? That there is a website where the text of the Constitution has been published? That is an indisputable fact.”
Justice Ministry’s rebuttal
In response to information circulating on social media and on the pages of some media outlets claiming that the Constitution had been published, the Justice Ministry said:
“We would like to inform you that the published text is not a draft of the new Constitution, and the information being circulated is false.”
The ministry urged Armenian citizens and media representatives to refrain from sharing unverified information and wait for the official publication of the new Constitution.
Fact-checkers’ investigation
The fact-checking platform FIP.am conducted its own investigation. The fact-checkers said the website hosting the text raised suspicions.
According to Who.is, the domain name Sahmanadrutyun.com was registered just a few days ago, on 3 September:
“The domain was registered through GoDaddy for one year, until 3 September 2027.”
FIP.am could not establish who actually owns the website. The investigative journalists could not determine who created or published the document.
At the same time, they found it clear that this was a recently created website, not an official or professional platform that had operated alongside the process of drafting the new Constitution for a long time.
The journalists also concluded that the text being circulated was not a genuine draft of the new Constitution. They pointed in particular to:
- internal contradictions between different articles,
- unusual wording that resembles working notes,
- typographical errors.
Moreover, key provisions of the published text closely resemble proposals put forward by Ikonomov and the Njhar constitutional movement he founded in 2025.
The fact-checkers specifically recalled that Artashes Ikonomov had said his proposed institutional system would include a State Council and a National Institute. He also proposed that the State Council should have nine members elected for nine-year terms:
“The document being circulated as a draft Constitution contains a similar structure. It also calls for the creation of an Institute of National Values and a State Council. The latter, again, consists of nine members with nine-year terms.”
FIP.am journalists also looked at which media outlets had published the disinformation. They included Mediamax and Armat Media, as well as the social media pages of Aysor.am and Politik.am.
“It is noteworthy that, according to the state registry, Ikonomov is one of the actual beneficiaries of Mediamax Media Company LLC, holding a 40 percent stake,” the publication says.
Fake news about Armenia’s Constitution
