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It has been 15 years since the self-declared government formed, withdrawing the “enclave” of about 150,000 Armenian residents from the control of Azerbaijan.

The referendum would come as peace talks are ongoing toward settlement of the 16-year old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over territorial claims to the region. A cease fire has been in place since 1994, but as peace talks have stagnated rhetoric of war has been voiced from Baku, while the Armenian side has, unofficially, engaged in repopulating NKR.

“The political situation makes adoption of a constitution for the NKR an imperative necessity,” says Armen Sargsyan, the leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. “We believe the Constitution of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will have an exceptional importance in terms of defining the conception and the principles of its foreign policy as well as the radical reforms of the domestic policies.”

For patriotic Armenians – and especially Karbakhis – adopting a constitution would fulfill a dream born of sacrifice.

But while the need for the governing document is widely endorsed, the specifics of what it offers are under debate.

Here in the capital, authorities endorse the text, experts say it needs further development, and average citizens complain that they can’t find answers to all of their questions.

Nevertheless, the main legal document of the NKR has been endorsed by both Armenian and international analysts.

“The international community can confirm the human rights provisions are best fixed in the Constitution,” says the head of the working group of the constitutional commission of NKR, General Prosecutor Armen Zalinyan.

Karen Ohanjanyan, coordinator of the Helsinki Initiative-92 non-governmental organization believes adoption of a constitution would facilitate to the formation of the state image.

“There are developed democratic states that do quite well without a constitution. But for an unrecognized state like NKR adoption of the constitution can reaffirm our aims and the country’s commitment to democracy. It will doubtlessly make the progressive humanity feel more sympathetic about Karabakh,” says Ohanjanyan, who is also the chairman of the Social Justice Party.

Comprised of 12 chapters, the draft Constitution is based on the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.

Still, the authors of the draft Constitution mention that the Constitution of the NKR will have many essential peculiarities directly connected with the state management. For example, presidential powers would be more limited than the RA version.

According to the draft the Prosecutor General of the republic is assigned by the National Assembly, not the President. The decision on the candidacy of the Prime Minister, though submitted by the President, will also be made by the National Assembly.

“We believe the draft Constitution separates the legislative, the executive and the judicial powers by fixing the mechanism of checks and balances between the three branches,” says Vahram Atanesyan, the head of the Democracy faction of the Democratic Party of Artsakh. “However, we would prefer the mentioned mechanisms were specified in more detail in the stage of parliamentary discussions. This particularly refers to the constitutional mechanisms of government formation and the supervision over the government activities by the parliament.”

Besides the principle approaches to the management, the all-embracing inclusion of the human rights and freedoms in the Constitution has also received positive response. Though, here, discussion of rights is framed in the context of uneasy peace and threat of war.

“Speaking of human rights becomes somewhat weird when martial law comes into force. But, the human rights fixed within the general context of the draft are guaranteed. The draft mainly coincides with the same provisions of the RA Constitution,” explains Hrant Melkumyan, the leader of the Communist Party of NKR.

Local experts, though, say the draft was rushed. Consequently, some of the crucial provisions are either omitted or are underdeveloped. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Artsakh representative Artur Mosiyan is concerned about the lack of one of the most important provisions regarding the legal ascertainment of the “liberated territories”.

“At present some of the territories are legally left out of Karabakh. That is why we suggest that the groups and factions at the National Assembly unite and come up with a legal act,” says Mosiyan. “Though part of our population lives in the liberated territories, the territories in fact are not legally ascertained. We frequently speak of the slow pace of resettlement in the territories, but the reason may lie here. A person who lives in the territories doesn’t know if the latter legally belongs to Karabakh or not.”

Melkumyan, however, says those questions are regulated by the NKR Law on Administrative-Territorial Division, and face very practical reality. “I think in the present day geopolitical situation fixing the borders is useless,” he says.

Common citizens are interested in one question: How will the Constitution change their lives?

“Our life today is directly connected with our status,” says Naira Hayrumyan, 35, a Karabakh who represents the Open Society Institute and the Stepanakert Press Club non-governmental organizations. “But the Constitution does not answer the question whether we are independent, or maybe we are part of Armenia, or maybe we do not have status at all. The Constitution does not answer the questions about the citizenship and the borders either.”

Hayrumyan’s organizations have initiated an independent expert poll to find out the extent to which the draft serves the aim of the country’s development and the inculcation of democratic reforms.

Five of the 12 surveyed analysts have answered the present draft can’t be a guarantee for the mentioned development.

The experts hold on to the opinion the Constitution should define the separation of powers, the questions of citizenship, the right for property and the issues regarding the refugees more clearly and should fix the factual borders of the state.