We have no other duty but to make our country powerful, and we have no other way but to unite our people. President Armen Sarkissian met with a group of representatives of culture and sport, as well as non-governmental organizations

President of the Republic Armen Sarkissian met with a group of representatives of culture, sports, as well as non-governmental organizations.

At the meeting, the importance of stability in the country and the atmosphere of tolerance was stressed without which it is impossible to solve the existing problems and get out of the current situation.

"It is a difficult time for all of us," said the President. "We must face the truth and analyze why we came to this; in order to live today and to live tomorrow. I think every Armenian has experienced a storm, and many are still having that storm in their hearts." And that is understandable. It does not matter where that person lives: in Artsakh, Armenia, Sochi, Moscow, Paris or Los Angeles. We are all Armenians, and we are all tied to our Homeland by our spiritual, intellectual and national umbilical cord. And this, of course, is a severe storm.

The President noted that after the victory we really had in the year 1994, the difficulty now is twofold. "But this does not mean that in any manner those feelings we all have in our souls and hearts should be turned into vandalism, beating, and directing that bitterness towards each other," said President Sarkissian.

"I think each of us should realize, as Armenians, that we have one of the most important values: our lives. We cannot lose what we have. A nation that lost 1.5 million people during the Genocide cannot lose lives any more. The life of every Armenian, no matter what party that Armenian belongs to, regardless of whether that Armenian is good or bad, greedy or generous, a man or a woman, an adult or a child, is of immense value to us. We are poor in human resources. Each of us should treat the Armenian sitting next to him like his sister or brother. What is wrong with the government building, the furniture in that building, the building that Tamanyan built, and the furniture bought with our taxpayers' money? The same applies to the National Assembly building. If we have something to say, there is a human way of speaking: tolerating and listening to each other. ”

The President of the Republic noted that if there are problems and demands of a small or large part of the society, then we should discuss and solve all the issues like civilized people. "Today we have problems, difficulties and disagreements, and they should be resolved only within the law, legality and statehood," said the President of Armenia. "As President, I call on all our compatriots that all our discussions must be within the framework of the law and legality. We are a family, if there is a misfortune in the family, blaming each other is not the problem at the moment. To analyze why this happened? Sure! To draw the right conclusions after that analysis? Sure! To make changes in the family if needed? Sure! But only in a civilized way. Even if you do not agree with the Speaker of the National Assembly, it is unacceptable to treat him as they did. "

At the same time, the President also considered the activities of law enforcement important, noting: "In no case, a police officer or a service officer should be criticized for misbehavior. In no case. "Stability is essential."

Answering the question on the recently signed trilateral statement of settling the Karabakh conflict, President Sarkissian said: "Today the Russian peacekeepers are already on the ground. Does this mean that everything is over? If you ask me, certainly not." The President of the Republic said that one of the first steps should be to return all this to the Minsk Group process. "This is not a Minsk process, this is a trilateral document, this is a ceasefire," he said. "Everything must be done very quickly to return to the Minsk process with the Co-Chairs of France, the United States and Russia, which has a mandate to determine the final status of Artsakh."

This document does not determine the final status of Artsakh. The Minsk process must be resumed as soon as possible. Relevant statements have already been made by the Office of the French Foreign Minister and the President. The French Foreign Minister spoke with Lavrov, there are impulses from the United States, and all this speaks of returning the process to the Minsk Group.

The vision of settling the issue is to return to the negotiations on the settlement of the Artsakh issue. But this is not enough. For those negotiations to succeed, a strong and powerful Artsakh, Armenia, and Armenian people must stand behind them."

According to the President, the way to become militarily strong is to have a modern army. Future wars will be much harder and more complex, with modern electronic technologies; soldiers must be trained to use those technologies. Therefore, we have a task to make Armenia a country of modern technologies shortly, in a few years," said the President. - This means that everything should be directed to the future: from our educational system to industry. We cannot lag behind. Each time we fall behind in the economy, in the military sphere, in all fields on the whole, we will find that we are one generation behind, so we will not be able to win. Victory is not only on the battlefield. Which countries will lead or be at the forefront? Countries that will have modern technologies. The world is going that way. We must be at the forefront of that path, both in terms of the economy and the future. Our path is clear, we must stand up and get organized. By saying ‘organized’, I mean national and state discipline.

The time has come for us to assess what our army, our economy and our science are like today, and having given assessments to have a clear vision and then a program based on that. The vision must be clear where we will be, for instance, after 20 years. This small country has no other path. And how are we going to make our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora more connected with Armenia? Being also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, I am grateful to you all for the donation of nearly 200 million dollars. However, I think we can do more. The President stressed that everything must be done for our compatriots in the Diaspora felt truly connected with their homeland.

As for the formula of moving forward, in response to a participant’s question, the President said: To move forward is very simple. Let's learn not to lie to ourselves and face the truth: if we have 10 drams, let's say we have 10 drams, and not say we have 1000. If today we see that our army is not modern, let's say that our army is not modern; we must do our best to make our army stronger than the army of any country in 10 years. We will not only build our army, but also our economy. We must build a powerful homeland, and one of its components is the following: we have no right to deceive each other, to present the desired as a reality. Let's be disciplined and respect each other. I call on all political forces to follow the example of our people. Do soldiers on the battlefield look who is of what party? No. On the battlefield, we were all for our homeland and our people.

It is time we could govern our emotions and use sober logic.

We have no other duty but to make our country powerful, and we have no other way but to unite our people. We are different, but we all belong to the same family. Do have different opinions, different approaches, and make your choice tomorrow, according to your conscience, thoughts and ideas, but never forget that you are the children of the same nation.

We can make any change or development in the country if we keep ourselves civilized, disciplined and realistic, not deceiving ourselves.

I urge you to be tolerant, and even under the most emotional and difficult conditions, to be able to give the right assessments today and move forward tomorrow. It is inadmissible if we will see clashes. There are all institutions to express your joy and dissatisfaction, to organize discussions, to listen, and to debate.

All of us should understand that we must redouble the energy we had, because we have immense difficulties: war, its aftermath, coronavirus, dire state of the economy, the loss of young people, and the unwavering support to all their families. It is the duty of all of us, but firstly of the state: all families of the victims who fell in the war and the wounded guys must be the focus of the state's attention. The President also thanked the medical staff, noting that these days our medical system is doing a really heroic job.

President Armen Sarkissian wished peace to the people and all families. "We have a lot of wounds to be healed" he said.