‘We should revalue state order-individual relationship as a result of coronavirus’ – Armenia PM

YEREVAN, JUNE 5, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says during the current coronavirus crisis everyone must revalue his/her attitude towards discipline and the civil duties in general.

During the online joint session of the parliamentary standing committees dedicated to the discussion of the annual report of the 2019 budget performance, the PM touched upon the concept adopted by the government from the very start which it calls “crisis as an opportunity”.

“I think that now, during these days, a deep over-estimation process is taking place in Armenia. And this process is linked with the relations between the individual and the state order. And in fact, a question arises: how do we perceive our state and statehood, whether we perceive it with the formula of a state as a violence tool as it has been formed in the history textbooks, or nevertheless, we perceive our national state, Armenia as an expression of our will to have a state. And I think that now, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic we should revalue the relations between the state order and the individual because based on the old perception laws are written by rulers in order to keep us, the citizens, under their control. But according to the new perception, the laws are created by all of us as a completion of co-existence rules, as an agreement on how we are going to live and communicate with one another”, the PM said.

Pashinyan said he wants to believe that now again there are revolutionary times in Armenia. “During the 2018 revolution we revalued, changed our relations towards our freedoms and rights. During the current coronavirus crisis we should revalue our attitude towards discipline and our civil duties in general”, he added.

He said that this coronavirus crisis will lead to some economic problems, but advised not to hurry up so much in this respect. “I think that this period of coronavirus has just started, it’s still unclear how long it will last, and it’s still early to sum up the outcomes, even the losses”, he said.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan