Our people no longer need to search for a homeland, the homeland is found: Pashinyan

Our people no longer need to search for a homeland; the homeland is found. Today, we are a more established state than ever before, more sovereign than ever before, stated Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Sardarapat.

“With 29,743 square kilometers of internationally recognized territory, the Republic of Armenia is a reflection of our people’s achievements, not losses,” he noted.

“For the first time in our history, a state system was outlined—a republic—where the holder of power is the people of Armenia, and they decide through elections who and how should govern the state. The first republic renewed, but did not consolidate our perception of statehood; it sowed, but did not root in our midst the ideas of popular sovereignty and freedom because it lacked the time,” he declared.

According to Pashinyan, the First Republic was targeted as an evil during the entire existence of the Soviet Union, becoming an object of mockery and contempt. “The empire aimed to obliterate the seedlings of independent statehood that the First Republic could have nurtured in our consciousness,” the Prime Minister continued.

He stated that in 1991, when Armenia regained its independence, it seemed that the 70 years of propaganda had not left a deep mark on us, and our fears of being independent and self-sufficient had been overcome. However, he argued that a retrospective analysis of the history of the Third Republic reveals that our disdain for statehood and our fears of sovereignty and independence have not been fully overcome.