Socio-psychological revolution has begun in Armenia – PM

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on Thursday that a new revolution was taking place in Armenia. 

He described the revolution to be just as important as the 2018 Velvet Revolution.

“A revolution has begun in Armenia, which is at least as important, if not more important, than the 2018 people’s, non-violent, velvet revolution,” Pashinyan said in parliament. 

“And this revolution will likewise end with the people’s victory. A socio-psychological revolution of the real Armenia is taking place. The key point in this revolution is that for the first time in the past several centuries our internationally recognized state and our fatherland are identical, our fatherland is Armenia. The state we live in is also Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

He said the opposition doesn’t accept and understand the slogan “the fatherland is the state”. 

Pashinyan explained the meaning, saying , “What it means is that at least in the past six centuries, we lived in a situation when our fatherland was Armenia but our state was Persia, when our fatherland was Armenia but our state was the Ottoman Empire, when our fatherland was Armenia but our state was the Russian Empire, the fatherland was Armenia but the state was the Soviet Union. And as this simple listing shows, the state had mostly been detestable for us, while the fatherland was beloved and [miserable]. And this socio-psychology had become an acquired reflex for us: hatred towards the state and its attributes and structures, desperate and erratic love for the fatherland. This is why the opposition is desperately shouting ‘folks do something, these people are filling the budget’. Because the budget and the tax are attributes of the state, therefore detestable according to the acquired reflex or subconsciously. They don’t want the state to exist here. They want a fatherland to exist here, because the fatherland doesn’t have a state border, while the state does…,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said today Armenia has a chance, like never before, to have a state. As to what has to be done to use that chance, the PM said ,”First of all, that relict, residual hatred for the state, which has been accompanying and guiding us like an acquired reflex, must be overcome. And parallel to this everything must be viewed from the perspective of the state interest, by accepting and acknowledging the superiority of that interest. And economic development is the state interest.”

Peace and the rule of law are required for economic development, while education and work are required to ensure it. 

“Looking at our region and the world with a new perspective and new eyes is an educational process. And looking at ourselves in the region with a new perspective and new eyes is also an educational process, because a region where there is a Armenia-fatherland is one thing, while a region where there is Armenia-state, fatherland-state-Republic of Armenia is a completely different thing,” Pashinyan said.