Citizen's Life Will Not Change If They Lie on the Couch Waiting for Change: Pashinyan

The newly appointed Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, addressed the promised radical changes in the economy during a Facebook Live session titled "A Conversation with Citizens."

"Regarding the question of when there will finally be a radical change in the economy, we must acknowledge the key importance and irreversibility of the changes that have occurred and apply the same formula in the economy that we used during the political changes," he stated.

He emphasized that further changes must occur through work, and it is the government’s responsibility to encourage that work. "There cannot be a regime where someone lies on the couch at home, waiting for the government to change their life. That person's life will never change at all. Now we are stepping from a political revolution into an economic revolution. If the citizens walk alongside us, that revolution will happen," Pashinyan noted.

Pashinyan further explained, "When the person who serves as the Prime Minister of the country walks into a store to buy a bottle of cognac, and the shopkeeper does not issue a receipt, it means that nothing has truly changed in the country, and nothing has changed in that person’s life and will not change."

Many people seem to think that if there has been a revolution, they won’t have to pay taxes as they did before, or that they won’t have to give money to the tax inspector. They believe everything will be fine. "It will not be the case that people do not pay taxes and demand good roads from the government. We say the following: dear people, we are not stealing your paid taxes, but you must pay your taxes," the Prime Minister concluded.