YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. During the September 8 Cabinet meeting the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that a decision has been made to duly mark the 30th anniversary of Independence, albeit the non-festive mood. This decision caused much controversy in the political and public arena, and some were demanding the authorities to cancel the event, particularly because the Prime Minister had said that the event would be “colorful”.

The event did take place in Yerevan’s Republic Square on September 21. The Prime Minister said that the event was dedicated first of all to the independence, security and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia and the memory of those who gave their lives for Artsakh.

ARMENPRESS talked with Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan over the matter. The vision of opening an era of peace was also addressed.

ARMENPRESS - Mr. Rubinyan, the celebrating-not celebrating of Independence Day was being discussed a lot in the recent period. How would you assess yesterday’s event?

Rubinyan – I believe it was the right decision to mark the 30th anniversary of Independence this way, because after all, all our sufferings of not only these 30 years but several centuries were for independence. I think such discussions shouldn’t had taken place at all. We shouldn’t allow for any suffering, any loss to weaken our resoluteness to build a free and independent homeland. For hundreds of years our ancestors struggled for us today to be able to have this day, and to celebrate it, and I think yesterday’s event was humble, tasteful and appropriate.

ARMENPRESS – There is a lot of talk now about opening an era of peace, but we constantly see incidents which question as to what extent this is possible, for example the latest incident which took place with two residents of Kasakh near Vorotan.

Rubinyan - Indeed, unfortunately during this period we’ve witnessed numerous destructive statements and actions, which force us to think that opening an era of peaceful development is unrealistic. But I think we must have strong nerves and patiently advance our agenda based on our state interests. In this context perhaps we should try to give significance also to small positive steps. Let’s take the incident you mentioned. It is a negative fact that the Azerbaijani military or law enforcement agencies detained our lost citizens. But it was positive that practically after one and a half day Azerbaijan repatriated them, moreover, they [repatriated citizens] themselves testified that they haven’t been ill-treated in any way during their time in Azerbaijan. We hope that with such continuous steps an opportunity will be created to move forward with the agenda of peace.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan