Sarkissian delivered the remarks during the Restoring Prosperity in a Post-Pandemic World online discussion on September 5.

The Armenian President spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic and his concerns at this phase when the world is undergoing changes. He noted that the concentration of people in big cities creates conditions for the rapid spread of the virus. He emphasized that the coronavirus is a consequence and not the reason of the changes happening around the world.

“At times of uncertainties, if you lose your common sense for your human dignity or your humanity its very easy for you to become xenophobic, it’s very easy to blame others for your failures and I see now in this world problems that are occurring because we are in transition,” he said.

“Just recently while Armenia was fighting coronavirus and our neighbor Azerbaijan was fighting coronavirus, Azerbaijan started on the border with Armenia a military activity, and where is our common sense?” Sarkissian also spoke about Turkey’s destructive rhetoric during those days.

“That concerns me as an Armenian, as a President because it takes me back 105 years ago when the Armenian Genocide happened in the Ottoman Empire. And it gives me more concern because some Azeri officials were speaking about bombing the Armenian nuclear power plant, which is unheard of, because at the end of the day when you bomb a nuclear power plant it will hurt not only Armenia but it will hurt everybody, every neighbor we have around,” he said.

“My hope is that during this transition, we don’t lose our common sense,” the Armenian President added, stressing that the world needs to value what it had created before, and focus on the future.

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan