The logic of pan-Armenianness can exist and be effective, if we Armenians base ourselves on several key pan-Armenian consensuses.

This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said in his speech at the pan-Armenian rally taking place at Renaissance Square in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic today.

According to Pashinyan, those six consensuses are the following:

“The first consensus is that violence must be excluded from the toolkit for the solution to any issue of Armenians’ concern. All the forces and individuals who view violence as a way of solving any issue related to Armenians must be rejected. The vision for a violence-free nation must become the cornerstone for our pan-national unity. As a matter of fact, there is only one exception in this context, and it is in the context of preventing and disclosing crimes and making sure people live normal lives.

The second consensus is that the people and their expression of freewill serve as the only source for establishing power. In this sense, I attach great importance to the fact that the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) must be free, competitive and democratic and that the real guarantees for expression of free will must be ensured. Based on this, the Republic of Armenia must and will serve as the guarantor for the expression of free will and for the formation of legitimate authorities through expression of free will.

The third consensus is that the sovereignty of the Armenians of Armenia and Artsakh is the highest value, and the Armenian people and the legitimate government of Armenia must and will give a strong counterinfluence against all forces that try to engage foreign powers in the solutions to issues that are related to Armenia and Armenians.

The fourth consensus is that there must not be corruption in both Armenia and Artsakh. All manifestations of corruption, including patronage and artificial monopolies must be extirpated.

The fifth consensus is that law and rule of law and equality of everyone before the law must become the axis of intra-national relations. The existence of courts giving in to external or internal influences poses a threat to national security. The courts of Armenia and Artsakh need to be independent. There must not be special people in economy, politics and in any other field of public life.

The sixth consensus is the most important consensus. The aim of the talks over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be to defend the outcomes of the Artsakh war led for the self-determination and security of the people of Artsakh, and any solution that the governments of Armenia and Artsakh view as acceptable after the negotiations can only be viewed as accepted after receiving the consent of the people in Armenia and Artsakh. Dear people, I would like to emphasize this in order to show that there is simply no sense in suspecting the Government of Armenia of any possible conspiracy against Artsakh. The Government of Armenia is negotiating over the settlement of the conflict as the legitimate representative of the people, and consequently, we can only defend and base ourselves on the wishes and desires of the people and express the wishes and desires of the people. The sixth consensus gives each and every one of us the guarantee by which we must extirpate even the most unlikely conspiracy theory.”