Pashinyan announces historic chance to ensure lasting Armenian statehood

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on April 17 that Armenia has a historic chance to secure a lasting statehood. 

Speaking in parliament, Pashinyan said that in its history of millennium Armenia has never had the kind of chance to ensure a lasting state that it has now. 

“We’ve led Armenia over the past seven years, we’ve seen defeat and failure, we’ve seen cries and [frustration], we’ve seen tragedy and fury. But our victory and strengths is that we’ve led at times where it seemed impossible to lead, where usually leadership doesn’t happen, where chaos and panic, collapse and destruction happens. We have led, simultaneously seeking an opportunity to have a real state, real independence, therefore freedom, prosperity, happiness for our fatherland, the Republic of Armenia and its people, and we have created that opportunity. We have reached the culmination of our history, and in our thousand years of history we have never had this kind of chance to ensure the lastingness of our state,” Pashinyan said.

He said all risks that exist today have always existed. “But the risks were continual, because we didn’t see and thus didn’t utilize the opportunity to manage and neutralize those risks. But today we see, manage and neutralize,” the PM said, adding that his administration’s actions in the recent years fit into this context, such as the agenda of normalizing relations with neighboring countries, the delimitation process and the finalization of the text of the peace agreement.

Pashinyan said these are the steps that prioritize the state and its citizens’ opportunity to live freely, safely, in prosperity, above all. “And this is our strategy, this is our greatest tribute to all our martyrs,” the PM said.