Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan delivered congratulatory speech from Sardarapat Memorial Complex on the occasion of the Day of the First Republic of Armenia.

“Dear President of the Republic of Armenia,

Dear President of the National Assembly,

Dear Government Members,

Executive power representatives,

Members of the National Assembly,

Dear representatives of the judiciary and local governments,

Dear people,

Dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

I congratulate all of us on May 28 - the Day of the First Republic of Armenia. On this day in 1918, for the first time in its history, the Armenian people created a state with a republican system of government. For the first time in our reality, a state was created where power belongs to the people.

This epochal event took place in the conditions of the collapse of empires, the formation of a new empire and world order, when in the battles of Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan and Karakilisa our people were able to prove their right to life.
However, the First Republic lasted only two and a half years, also because after winning the battle for existence, proclaiming a state, we did not manage to formulate our vision of life in an independent state and to make life in the First Republic comfortable and profitable for ourselves.

The First Republic did not manage to position itself as a means of security, well-being and happiness of its own citizens, since, in fact, during its entire existence it did not have a single day of peace. Hunger, emigrants who escaped the [Armenian] genocide, internal strife, the centuries-old absence of economic institutions, state institutions, culture of statehood, foreign influence, and war caused the fall of the First Republic.
This, however, in no way detracts from the role of the First Republic. After more than 540 years of break, the Armenian people found a statehood and for the first time forged a Republic, and the lessons of this Republic are on our table today.
Of those many lessons, I want to highlight just one today: life in the Republic of Armenia should be comfortable and useful for the citizens, well-being and happiness should be present today and not in a distant future, and the time for unraveling historical knots is now and not later.

The First Republic did not have enough time - but we still do. The First Republic could not survive after the war of 1920, we are standing after the war of 2020 and building our Motherland and State that exist here and now, and we will no longer look for a new Motherland, because our Motherland is our state.

This state is both a goal and a means. It is a goal, because only the state can best express the interests of its founder: the people. It is a means, because only the state can best express the interests of its founder: the people. And these interests dictate to us that security, well-being and happiness be provided for our long-suffering people - this is possible under conditions of settled relations with neighbors, only under conditions of peace, which the First Republic did not have, and which, unfortunately, the Third Republic still does not have.

That is why we have adopted and consistently implement the peace agenda, because all our martyrs fell for the happiness, not the suffering of their people. Only the prosperous, living, developed, and secure Armenia, the Republic of Armenia, the state of Armenia must bring eternal peace to the souls of all our martyrs.

Glory to all our martyrs who gave their lives for their Motherland!

And long live the Republic of Armenia!

Long live the Republic of Armenia!”