YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. The work of the First Armenian Republic’s statesmen is alive, their dream is alive and it must be realized; The blood of the heroes of Sardarapat, Bash Aparan and Gharakilisa wasn’t shed in vain, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in remarks on the occasion of Republic Day at a ceremonial celebration at the Sardarapat Memorial.

“Today we celebrate one of the most important events of our millennia-old history – the Day of the Establishment of the First Republic of Armenia. On May 28, 1918 after the heroic battles of Gharakilisa, Bash Aparan and Sardarapat, the first independent Republic of Armenia was declared, and this took place in a period of time when it seemed as if the Armenian people’s history has come to its final stage. But the opposite happened, the unexpected, and the Armenian people gained what it had lost seemingly irreversibly, it gained statehood. The first Republic of our history was built on the sacred blood that was shed here. This is the most important reason that every year on May 28th we are gathering here, we come here to say that we realize our historic responsibility before the heroes of Sardarapat, Bash Aparan and Gharakilisa, we come here to laud the heroes of the three battles, that their blood wasn’t shed in vain, that their generations are today proudly walking on the same land where they are resting, to which they have conveyed a new meaning and content with their unspeakable sacrifices and heroic deeds,” PM Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan emphasized that the nation gathers at the Sardarapat Memorial on this day to say to the statesmen of the First Republic that the flag raised by them isn’t a museum artifact at all; it is waving as the number one symbol of the independent Republic of Armenia. Pashinyan stressed that the First Republic statesmen’s work is alive, their dream is living and it must be realized.

The PM voiced the names of those who created the First Republic, the statesmen and government officials. He first mentioned Hovhannes Kajaznuni, Alexander Khatisyan, Hamo Ohanjanyan and Simon Vratsyan, politicians who served as prime ministers in those days.

“It is your heroic deeds that inspired the heroes of the Artsakh Liberation War – from Vazgen Sargsyan to Monte Melkonyan, from Kristapor Ivanyan to Leonid Azgaldyan, it is your heroic deeds that inspired Artsakh April War heroes, from Robert Abajyan to Kyaram Sloyan, from Armenak Urfanyan to Adam Sahakyan. Privates and Officers, Sergeants and Generals of the Armenian Army who every day bear the heavy but proud responsibility of their country’s security are inspired with your deeds…It is your deeds that the proud and free citizen of Armenia is inspired with, who established their own power in Armenia, who has become the owner of the Fatherland established and created by you,” the PM said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan