SARDARAPAT. – We have taken a crucial test 95 years ago, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated Tuesday at Sardarapat Memorial, in connection with Republic Day.  

“We were taking [this test] as a nation. The last part of the motherland-living Armenians was fighting for the existence of at least a small part of Historical Armenia. Here we drove the enemy away. Here the Armenians of Eastern Armenia were saved from the impending disaster. Owing to our common spirit, the Great Genocide, which had started in Ottoman Turkey, was stopped here.    

The declaration of independence was a dire travail for us. We were crafting the statehood of Armenia on the battlefield, [and] at the cost of greatest sacrifices and losses. 

May 28, 1918 is the record of our physical salvation and political rebirth. It is the record of our nation’s valor and might. And we know the formula for existing and defeating.         

Be united, [and] state-organized! Rely on you own strength! In this case, we are capable of not solely restoring statehood and independence, but also taking that state toward great heights. Their start was given here, and today we stand here as proud citizens of a free and independent country, [as] successors of heroic forebears,” President Sargsyan stated, in particular.