YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed a congratulatory message on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of Armenia’s Independence, the PM’s Office told Armenpress.

The message reads:

“Dear people, proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

Proud citizens of the Republic of Artsakh,

Proud Armenians of the Diaspora,

I congratulate all of us on Armenia’s Independence Day.

Through the referendum held 29 years ago on this day our people unanimously declared the independence of Armenia. The September 21, 1991 referendum is one of the most important events in the history of our people, which began in 1988 with the Artsakh movement.

The results of the referendum signaled to the whole world the free will of the Armenian people to have an independent and democratic state.

During the past 29 years we faced many difficulties – war, socio-economic hardships, emigration, election frauds, October 27, political repressions, March 1, crisis situations and despair.

However, all these difficulties could not break the Armenian people. The 2018 Peaceful, Velvet and People’s Revolution became a strong expression of state optimism, civil determination, which proved that the Armenian people’s will to have a sovereign, free, powerful and happy state is strong than ever. The sovereign and free state, the eternity of that state is at the core of the national agenda of the Armenian people, and we need to focus all our forces on the daily servicing of this agenda.

Dear compatriots,

Today I will publish Armenia’s 2050 transformation strategy, which is not a rigid document, but a mechanism to discuss our visions, goals on 2050 Armenia, the ways on achieving that goals, making decisions on their implementation and controlling the implementation process.

I believe that with this we are entering into a new stage of our state life, when we are governing the state with the strategic logic, when every decision made today not only has ongoing, but also 10,20, 30 years of strategic targets and goals.

This is a mechanism which should make the discussions about future, the future planning an integral part of our daily work.

In 1991 we didn’t know how Armenia would be in 2020, and due to many objective and subjective reasons we didn’t spend time on forming our visions for today and making their implementation a daily action.

But the time inevitably puts us before such a problem. We cannot wait for the 2050 or 2100 arrival to see how Armenia will look like. We should plan that Armenia, build it starting today. Therefore, among numerous issues we should give priority to those ones which connect us with Armenia of 2050, 2100.

The citizen of Armenia celebrating the 100th anniversary of Independence must see that we have thought not only about ourselves, but also himself, should feel our tenderness and responsibility towards Armenia’s future, in other words his present, should see our dreams of today already fulfilled.

I am sure we have enough will, skills, unity and wisdom to fill our daily agenda with such a work and provide institutional conditions for the eternity of Armenia and its people.

This is the key mission of our generation, and we will implement that mission together.

Long Live Freedom,

Long Live the Republic of Armenia,

Long Live us and our children who live and will live in Free and Happy Armenia!”