During a live broadcast on Facebook, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan responded to a user’s request to pardon the customs officer who was fired during the Prime Minister’s visit to a customs house for disrespecting the Armenian national flag.

“I analyzed my actions and my reactions and, to be honest, I have to admit that I reacted the right way. In reality, I didn’t know the particular customs officer. For me, he was simply a state official who disrespected the national flag,” he said.

He also touched upon the criticism that he had talked to the customs officer informally, saying that there are things that are said informally to make a statement. He was also criticized for telling the customs officer to stand straight when seeing the Prime Minister and said that not only state officials, but also citizens need to stand straight when they see the Prime Minister.

One of the users criticized Pashinyan for demanding that the employee resign, when he should have dismissed the head of the State Revenue Committee from office. “Based on this logic, I should have resigned on the spot since the flag was disrespected by an employee of a body adjunct to my government. Every citizen has a relationship with the flag,” Pashinyan said.

Nikol Pashinyan rejected the user’s request, explaining that the most harmful leader is a weak leader and that he would apologize, if he believed he was wrong, but he’s certain that he has done the right thing. “I’m very sorry that I can’t fulfill your request, but I’m certain that I made the right decision and did the right thing. I’m probably the Prime Minister of Armenia who has publicly apologized the most, and I don’t know if any of my predecessors have ever apologized or not, but even if they have, they haven’t apologized as much as I have. If I make a mistake, I have to be convinced that I have made a mistake and then apologize to you,” he said.