YEREVAN.- President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan attended on Monday Pan-Armenian Forum for Representatives of Diaspora Armenian Organizations and Heads of Armenian Communities held in Yerevan.

Armenian News-NEWS.am presents the full text of Bako Sahakyan’s address to the participants.

“Respectable participants of the congress,

I welcome and warmly congratulate you all on the beginning of the Pan-Armenian Congress of representatives of the leaders and representatives of the Diaspora organizations.

The Homeland-Diaspora unity is among the cornerstones of the existence and strengthening the independent Armenian statehood as well as preserving national identity of our compatriots living in different parts of the globe. Due to this very unity we have been able to overcome numerous ordeals and embark on the path of stable development.

It is a dynamic system and to maintain its flexibility and effectiveness it is necessary take into consideration changes and developments taking place both in the international arena and in different countries. It requires close cooperation between state, political, political, public, scientific, educational, cultural and other circles in the Homeland and in the Diaspora, searching for and outlining new fields of cooperation.

In the Diaspora the key links in this process in the institute of organization leaders, link that perhaps better feels the pulse of the Armenian communities, problems existing there and ways to solve them.

From this perspective I consider important the congress organized by the Ministry of Diaspora, which can become a framework for discussing essential issues our nation and the two Armenian states face.  This very much required format of cooperation is perhaps one of the most effective ways of implementing practical activities. Artsakh is interested and ready to act in this arena considering as a mechanism of strengthening the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity in practice.

Dear friends, I am confident that this congress will contribute to solving the problems our nation faces, the goal which is patriotic in its essence.

I wish the congress and its participants effective work and success for the sake of strengthening our statehood and realizing our national aspirations.”