The President of the Republic, Armen Sarkissian, had a meeting with a group of representatives from the fields of culture and sports, as well as from non-governmental organizations.
During the meeting, the preservation of the country’s stability and an atmosphere of tolerance was deemed important, without which it is impossible to resolve the issues at hand and emerge from the current situation.
“This is a difficult moment for all of us. We must look the truth in the eye, analyze why we have reached this point, so that we can live today and live tomorrow. I believe that every Armenian has experienced a storm within themselves, and for many, that storm is still ongoing. And that is understandable. It does not matter where that person lives — in Artsakh, Armenia, Sochi, Moscow, Paris, or Los Angeles. We are all Armenians, and we are all connected to the homeland through our spiritual, intellectual, and national umbilical cord. And this is, of course, a heavy storm.”
The President noted that since 1994, when we truly had a victory, the difficulty now is twofold. “But this does not mean that those feelings, which are in all our hearts and souls, should in any way turn into vandalism, beatings, and directing that bitterness against one another,” said President Sarkissian. “I believe everyone must realize that we, as Armenians, have one of the most important values — Armenian life. Every Armenian must value the life of his Armenian brother and be tolerant towards him. A nation that lost 1.5 million people during the Genocide cannot afford to be wasteful.”
The President of the Republic noted that if there are problems and demands from a small or large part of society, we must, like a civilized people, discuss and resolve all issues. “As President, I call on all our compatriots that all our discussions must be within the framework of the law and legality. We are a family, and if there is misfortune in the family, blaming one another is not the issue at this moment. To analyze why it happened that way? Of course. To draw the right conclusions after that analysis? Of course. If there is a need, to make changes in the family? Of course. But only in a civilized manner,” he noted.
Responding to a question regarding the trilateral statement signed recently concerning the resolution of the Karabakh crisis, President Sarkissian said, “Today the Russian peacekeepers are already in place. Does this mean that everything is over? If you are asking me, of course not.” He emphasized that one of the first steps must be to return all of this to the Minsk Group process.
“This is not the Minsk process; this is a trilateral document, a ceasefire. We must do everything very quickly to return to the Minsk process, with the co-chairs of France, the United States, and Russia, which has been given the mandate to determine the final status of Artsakh. This document does not determine the final status of Artsakh,” he stated.
According to him, the vision for the resolution of the issue is to return to the negotiations on the settlement of the Artsakh issue. “But this is not enough. For those negotiations to succeed, a strong and powerful Artsakh, Armenia, and the Armenian people must stand behind them,” the President observed.
According to the President, the path to becoming strong militarily is to have a modern army and to educate conscious generations armed with technology. “The time has come to assess what our army, our economy, and our science are like today, and after making assessments, to have a clear vision, and then a program deriving from it. The vision must be clear as to where we will be, for example, 20 years from now. This small country has no other way. And how are we going to make our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora more connected to Armenia?”
As for the formula for moving forward, the President said, “The path forward is very simple. Let us learn not to lie to ourselves, to look the truth in the eye. If we have 10 drams, let us say we have 10 drams, not say we have 1000. If today we see that our army is not modern, let us say that our army is not modern, and let us do everything so that in 10 years our army is more powerful than the army of any country. We will build not only our army but also our economy. We must build a strong homeland, and one of its components is the following: we have no right to deceive one another, to present the desirable as reality. Let us be disciplined and respectful towards one another. I call on all political forces to follow the example of our people. On the battlefield, do soldiers look at who is from which party? No. On the battlefield, we were all supporters of one thing — the homeland, our people. It is time for us to be able to manage our emotions and use cold logic. We have no other duty than to make the country strong, and we have no other way than to unite the people. We are different, but we all belong to the same family. Have different opinions, different approaches, and tomorrow make a choice according to your conscience, mind, and ideology, but never forget that you are children of the same nation,” noted President Sarkissian.
