Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s congratulatory message on the occasion of Republic Day
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
Today we celebrate the Republic Day, which is one of the most important days of our state calendar. First, it symbolizes the restoration of Armenian statehood, which took place after a 400-year break, on May 28, 1918, after the battles of Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan, and Gharakilisa, with the establishment of the first Republic of Armenia.
This day also symbolizes the establishment of people’s power in Armenia because, on May 28, 1918, we had a state system where the power forms the legislative and executive power’s choice, where the people are the source and bearer of power, the founder and sovereign of the state. This is the ideology of the republic, which was established in our reality for the first time in 1918. The establishment of the people as the supreme bearer of power is a turning point for our history, and this profound concept is about the possibility of building one’s own freedom, security, well-being with one’s own hands.
A republic is about a people making a bid to control their destiny, to set their own rules for living, and to pass on the sovereignty to do so from generation to generation.
This is an extremely ambitious and responsible mission, This cannot be accomplished if new thinking formulas aimed at ensuring its perpetuity are not formed with the state’s founding.
The First Republic had neither the time nor the opportunity to solve such conceptual problems. Today we have that time and opportunity.
After the 44-day war of 2020, the Republic of Armenia remained standing precisely because of the outline of new ways of thinking, which enabled us to perceive reality anew and our possibilities to influence reality.
These new ways of thinking and viewpoints make it obvious that the ability to constantly change and develop in a constantly changing world, to make decisions adapted to challenges and goals, is the formula for ensuring the permanence of the state, the key to being viable.
Our government leads the Republic of Armenia with this method, with the understanding that to be viable means to be able to preserve and develop statehood, identity, values, to be able to build freedom, security, and well-being.
The real strategy of Armenia is about this. But it is also about the fact that freedom is not enough, justice is needed, security is not enough, peace is needed, prosperity is not enough, happiness is needed, vitality is not enough, life is needed.
Cautious, difficult, but we are going exactly this way. Many people think we are moving slowly. Actually and reasonably fast is slow but without interruptions. We are moving forward without interruption and we see the desired goal on the horizon.
I congratulate all of us on the occasion of the Republic Day.
Glory to the martyrs and long live the Republic of Armenia.
And long live our children who will live in Free and Happy Armenia.
