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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told PACE members on Tuesday that he considers democracy the foundation for preserving Armenia’s statehood and independence after the 2020 war.
In his speech at the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Pashinyan described the 2020 war as part of a hybrid war and said that Armenia experienced several actions aimed at undermining its democracy afterward. However, democracy itself prevented the destruction of the country’s statehood and independence, he said.
“War and the accompanying disinformation were the tools used by anti-democratic forces to demand that we simply hand over power to them. We responded by saying that we could not hand over the power given to us by the people to anyone—but we could ask the people themselves. In April 2021, I resigned, which led to the dissolution of parliament, and we held snap parliamentary elections—amid border escalations, the occupation of sovereign Armenian territory, and a campaign of information terror. No one believed that our party would once again receive the people’s vote of confidence. But the political force that had led the non-violent, velvet, people’s revolution not only received a majority of the votes once again, but also secured a constitutional majority.
This happened for one key reason: the people understood that it was this election that would guarantee their power—the power of the people—in Armenia. I can state clearly and unequivocally that today, yes, in Armenia, power belongs to the people, and it is the people who are the guarantors of democracy in Armenia. Armenia is more independent than ever before, freer than ever before, more sovereign than ever before, and more democratic than ever before,” the Prime Minister said.
Pashinyan reaffirmed that power today belongs to the people and that democracy is in good hands.
“In the 2021 elections, the people also shaped and delegated their own pre-election message to the ruling majority. The top priority was peace. They gave us the mandate to bring peace to Armenia,” Pashinyan said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the people’s mandate is enshrined in the 2021–2026 Government Program.