Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has conveyed a message on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The message reads as follows:

“Dear compatriots, proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

Thirty years ago, the Supreme Council adopted the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, which heralded the start of the establishment of independent statehood. This historic decision was hinged on the will of the Armenian people to have an independent state and derived from that will, which was confirmed through a referendum for Armenia’s independence a year later.

The past 30 years have been years of many trials, failures and victories. Among the major victories was the victory in the glorious battle for the liberation of Artsakh that became the foundation and stimulus for the formation of the Armenian army. The victorious battles in July 2020 proved that we Armenians have an efficient army that is capable of defending Armenia’s security and that Armenia can guarantee the security of Artsakh with honor.

The biggest failure of the past 30 years is the low level of functioning of state and public institutions, if not to say the absence of institutions. Almost right after it gained independence, Armenia suffered from the absence of a judiciary, rule of law and equality of everyone before the law.

For many years, corruption has been the major toolkit for public administration, and as a result, Armenia remained without an effective public administration system. Corruption has penetrated into all sectors, including the public administration system, the judiciary, schools, kindergartens, universities, academic and cultural circles, mass media outlets, the electoral system and sometimes even spiritual relations. This has been the failure of all of us.

The most devastating result of all this was the fact that citizens were alienated from their state, rights and duties, state order became alien for citizens because it was based on political coercion hinged on corruption and electoral fraud, not the will of the people.

The non-violent, velvet and people’s revolution that took place in 2018 solved this problem. Citizens who were alienated from their rights regained their right to form government, and this is a historic opportunity to enshrine the successes of the past 30 years and fix the failures.

Our primary objective is the functioning of state and public institutions. The normal development of the army must continue, and we must set the objective to have one of the most efficient armies in the world.

An electoral mechanism that will rule out electoral fraud, an independent judiciary, an education system serving the institutional goals of the state and people and increasing competitiveness and free of fraud, a public administration system promoting high professionalism and effectiveness, an innovative, creative and competitive economy, citizens, businessmen and officials who treat obligations with zeal — these are our future pressing objectives.

Work, education, ongoing increase of skills and knowledge must become the bedrock for social security and welfare of all citizens, every citizen himself must become responsible for welfare, and the government and state must create sufficient educational, legal and competitive conditions.

Dear people, proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia, I congratulate all of us on the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia. We recently adopted the new Strategy on National Security in which we stated that Armenia today is positioning itself as the major milestone for the statehood of the Armenian people and that the line of conduct today will determine the destiny of the Armenian people for the next millennium. The state order established in Armenia must become familiar for every citizen and must derive from the informed responsibility of every citizen.

We represent the generation that adopted the Declaration of Independence, and it is our historical duty and mission to turn the proclaimed wishes into a reality. This makes each of us responsible because the Armenian state must exist forever and the Armenian people must exist forever.

And so,

Long live Freedom!

Long live the Republic of Armenia!

Long live the Republic of Artsakh!

Long live we and our children who are living and will live in a Free and Happy Armenia!’