YEREVAN. – The Citizen’s Day is called to have a certain civic education role, to educate, shape the citizen, and therefore it’s worth allocating 124 million [drams] to the holiday. Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, on Monday told this to reporters in parliament.

“The problem that we, nevertheless, have value-system problems in society is more strikingly manifested before the revolution [in Armenia last year], especially after the revolution,” Mirzoyan noted. “Ultimately, years before the revolution, we were speaking about a revolution of values. And now the [Armenian] citizen’s holiday, which has already been set, is also called to have the role of a certain civic education, educate, shape a citizen, eventually to establish that institution. [So] I believe it’s worth directing 124 million [drams] to this.”

The NA chairman stressed that the Citizen’s Day has the objective of seeing to it that last year’s velvet revolution would not become a single action.

“The revolution was largely the [Armenian] citizen’s awakening and the citizen’s triumph, with the direct participation of the citizen—moreover, with an unprecedented amount of participation,” he added, in particular. “This shall be rooted among citizens; the citizen’s holiday serves this purpose.”

The Armenian government has recently decided to allocate 124 million drams (approx.. US$257,585) to celebrate Citizen’s Day in the country. From now on, Armenia will be marking Citizen’s Day—and on the last Saturday of April.