YEREVAN. - In Los Angeles President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan participated in a celebratory reception in honor of 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence and delivered a welcoming speech, presidential press service reported. Armenian News-NEWS.am presents its own unofficial translation of President Sargsyan’s speech in Los Angeles:

‘‘On September 21 Armenian TV air was full of exciting and very impressive materials from Armenia and all over the world. And one can keep calm when looking at, say, stories telling about the celebrations here, in Los Angeles? How not to thrill when the guys lifting their glasses for the independent homeland, publicly announce that in the event of any encroachments, in a few hours they will be on the defensive positions?

In 1991 the dream of the entire Armenian people came true. For two decades in a row we are building our corner in this big world, we are building our state - the Republic of Armenia. We build overcoming severe challenges, one more difficult than the other. We build, confronting the disasters and the war, the blockade and the crisis.

In this short period we have tried to create foundations of statehood, to strengthen the democracy, build civil society and free economy and integrate into the international community. We tried to adopt the new and the best, while maintaining our traditions – our Armenianness.

Of course I could not say that we reached perfection in 20 years, however everything is estimated in comparison. A mere moment for the history, for us it is a moment of difficult but very interesting 20 years of loss, quest, success and achievement. Today, we have a formed system of government, an army, which you can be proud of. We have an emerging wide range of civil society, all institutions of the modern state and we have the will to continue to building our state - every day, step by step and consistently.

Let’s take a look around: there are many Diaspora Armenians who have returned to Armenia or are actively and directly involved in the life of our country.

Of course, this is not a simple matter. It is not easy to leave the familiar environment and move to a homeland, which seems strange, even virtual. However, today we have a lot of inspiring examples. Many of our countrymen have tasted the inspiration to live and work at home. Unfortunately, some have tasted the bitter disappointments as well. We must learn from our inspirational examples but first we must freely and openly discuss the causes of bitterness. Joint work is mandatory in this respect because indicating shortcomings is only one half the story. We must find ways to eliminate them and share the honor and responsibility for success. Armenia is not an imaginary, romantic country. Armenia is earthly, with its joys and its difficulties. We have experienced tremendous progress but also we have the shortcomings everybody here knows of. Who can help us overcome these shortcomings if not our compatriots?

I call on everybody for an open and direct conversation. We appeal to our compatriots in the Diaspora as a family; it’s by the virtue of relationship that we should discuss all the shortcomings together. We need to discuss our problems, so that none of us avoided his share of responsibility.

Our problems are numerous. We have not reached a stable peace and are forced to spend enormous resources to ensure the security of our country and our people. Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem campaigns against our country throughout the world, on all international platforms. Our small economy remains vulnerable to adverse external impulses and we are making great efforts to protect our businesses, ensuring at least the minimum needs of our elderly. One of the biggest challenges is, of course, the corruption, which we inherited from Soviet times and which in the last decades acquired new shades in almost every sphere - from education to urban planning, from social welfare to agriculture.

All of these problems are ours and it is up to us to find solutions. Do not have a single doubt, we can find the necessary solutions: we have both the capacity and will.

We have an important historical experience and lessons we must learn from our own past. Establishment of the Republic of Armenia in the early twentieth century was a brilliant proof of our ability to make the centuries-old dream come true. May 28 was also an evidence of our ability to set the largest and most complex problems and solve them together. The roots of this power extend from time immemorial and our life tree blooms and blossoms every time we exercise self-confidence, joint efforts, internal harmony, mutual respect, forgiveness and confidence.’’