YEREVAN.- The Republicans believe that each person is born free and must have the opportunity to live free and develop, pursuing his or her own personal, familial, public and national goals, Armenian President said.

“All mentioned levels are important and interrelated. A person cannot be honest and virtuous on one level at the expense of other levels. A person cannot be honest and virtuous in his or her family at the public’s and the nation’s expense.

 A person cannot build his or her own personal and family happiness, robbing and depriving the public and the nation; stealing from the public and the nation means stealing from oneself, from one’s own family,” he said at the Congress of the Republican Party of Armenia held in Yerevan on Saturday.

“We believe that our society should develop in an environment of a free competition. However, free competition must not translate into the advantage for big money as it cannot translate into an opportunity for the very same big money to suppress and consume other competitors.

We also believe that family is the foremost and the strongest citadel which safeguards our national existence: it is our traditional and conservative family where the young respect and listen to the elderly, whose pillars are the wife and the mother.

However, “listen” doesn’t mean to be a hostage to the will of the elderly and “the pillar of the family” doesn’t mean a prisoner of the kitchen. And it is best proved by the increasing presence of women and young people in the ranks of the Party. Compared to our previous conventions, there are more women and young people in this hall.

And we will do our best to preserve and develop this tendency of their increased participation. We will combine the experience and knowledge of the elder with the vigor and enthusiasm of the young, with the dedication and traditionalism of the women, and together we will build a new Armenia – for us all and for each one of us.

We also believe that our public is much more than a simple mechanical gathering of people. We believe that a nation is much more than the people of a common character bonded by a social contract. We believe that that social contract is more based on the spirit of the nation rather than on the letter of the contract.”