YEREVAN. – The national liberation movement in 1988 was a unique historic phenomenon, whose recurrence no one had ever seen and heard.

Candidate for the fourth President of Armenia, Ambassador to UK Armen Sarkissian, on Thursday noted the aforesaid in his address at the National Assembly (NA).

“At the time we were carrying a USSR passport, but we were carrying the passport of independent Armenia in our heart,” he said, in particular. “The struggle started not only for the protection of the people of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)], but over time, it turned into a fight for independent Armenia.”

Sarkissian added, however, that the 26 years of Armenia’s independence were not trouble-free years.

“Armenia today has an army which isn’t inferior to many European armies, with its kind,” the presidential candidate stressed, in particular. “These 26 years are years of victories and failures, but they are years of great victory in the Artsakh war.”

In his words, even though Armenia was much smaller in its economic capacity 26 years ago, its society was much less polarized.

“Today our state is more powerful, wealthier, but it is more polarized,” he said. “And we have poverty, social inequality, along with successes.”

Debates on the matter of the election of the fourth President of Armenia have kicked off Thursday in the NA.

And the respective voting is slated for Friday.