Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, together with the President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan, visited the border positions of the northern section of the Defense Army. Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Sahakyan were accompanied by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia Artak Davtyan and the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Artsakh-Commander of the Defense Army Karen Abrahamyan.
At the border positions, Nikol Pashinyan and Bako Sahakyan were briefed on the current situation on the front line and the work carried out in recent times to ensure the architectural and technical saturation of the border positions. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and the President of the Republic of Artsakh familiarized themselves with the living conditions of the servicemen and spoke with the soldiers. The head of the government of the Republic of Armenia emphasized the continuous development of the armed forces and the military industry and noted that the army should become an example for the development of the economy. The Prime Minister emphasized the introduction of a new food system in the armed forces and observed that it could also stimulate the development of agriculture, since agricultural products should be purchased directly from the farmer.
During the meeting with the servicemen, Nikol Pashinyan touched upon the purpose of visiting the border positions, the development of the armed forces, interpersonal relations among servicemen and other issues.
In his speech, the Prime Minister, in particular, noted.
«Honorable President of the Republic of Artsakh,
Respected Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia,
Respected Commander of the Defense Army,
gentlemen officers, generals, soldiers,
I am very glad to see you. The purpose of our visit today is to find out whether positive changes are taking place in the lives of soldiers, both in the long term and in the short term. That is, what has happened in the short term and what should happen in the long term. And of course, the most important purpose is to see you, to see your eyes, to try to read what is written in your eyes. I am glad to note that in your eyes I see confidence in your own strength, I see confidence in our homeland and I see confidence in our future:
Of course, in the eyes of some it appears strong, in the eyes of others weak, but our common goal is to raise our collective confidence, first of all in each other, in each of our own strengths and in our collective strength. And I want to express the hope that you will always feel that the authorities of the Republic of Armenia and the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh do not forget for a single moment the soldier guarding the border:
Recently, we had the occasion to confer promotions within the Ministry of Defense — the observation was the following: whatever is done in the rear, any activity has meaning only insofar as our soldier guarding the border is strong. The press, political activity, whether opposition or governmental, any activity is given meaning exclusively thanks to you, because if you, we, the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh do not stand firmly behind the army, everything else will be meaningless, everything — starting from cafes, theatres, cinemas, cars, holidays, entertainment, absolutely everything will be meaningless:
And I want that awareness to be in you, because sometimes the question may arise as to why we are standing here. You are standing here to give meaning to the life, activity, every day and every moment of our entire state and entire people, because if you were not here, there would be no meaning at all in doing anything there. Therefore, I personally, our government, want you to feel every moment how highly we value the service you perform before the homeland:
The homeland is the highest feeling we have, but I want each of us to understand more clearly what the homeland is, or rather, what the homeland consists of, who the homeland is. The homeland is your parents, the homeland is your sisters, your brothers, your relatives, the homeland is the girls you love, the homeland is friends, the homeland is your grandfathers, the homeland is your generations that are yet to be born and that must live in a free and happy country. And I hope that you will feel that care, that concern, that purpose:
Now, huge changes are taking place in the Armed Forces. Of course, some of you will feel those changes sooner, depending on the place of deployment and other circumstances, but you must know one thing: it is usually accepted to say that security and the army are a priority, but I say that security and the army are the priority of all priorities. For the very first reason I mentioned, because everything that happens behind you, the meaning of everything, depends on the combat readiness and firmness of the armed forces; otherwise, nothing would have any meaning:
Imagine, in some environment, perhaps in nature, many of your friends and parents are celebrating someone’s birthday — calmly, joyfully, telling each other anecdotes, singing, dancing. That is thanks to your service, because if that service did not exist, none of that would exist, none of that would have meaning, and the mood for all of that would not exist at all. And now our goal is that you feel this connection, this content: feel it at the level of armament, feel it in the shoes you wear, feel it in the clothes you wear, feel it in the food provided to you, feel it in your attitude towards each other — here the government’s part is already less, yours is more:
This is one of our most important tasks, and that task is not only in the army, but generally in our country. How we treat each other — that is the homeland, the homeland begins there, because the way we treat each other is the way we treat our homeland, because the homeland is also land, but land without people is not a homeland; land becomes a homeland through people. Therefore, we love our homeland, we treat our homeland the way we treat a person:
