Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan on the occasion of the Fifth Convocation of the RA National Assembly

Dear Colleagues,

I congratulate you on the occasion of the first session of the Fifth Convocation of the RA National Assembly. I thank all delegates of the previous parliament for their work. From the viewpoint of lawmaking, last five years have been really prolific, and I believe they have laid a good basis for the next five years. Many of you have already become professional lawmakers and will naturally ensure smooth advancement of the National Assembly activities. I also salute all those who have been elected members of the parliament for the first time and wish them productive work.

For me, and I believe for many present here, impressions of the pre-electoral meetings are still vivid. We all have had active discussions all over the country with our citizens; we listened to attentively and meticulously took note of daily concerns and problems of our people. These people have elected us because they believed in us, because they had faith in us. I want us to work in such a way that no one regrets for their choices and in such a way that we justify their hopes. We can do a lot; you can do a lot. You are the legislative authorities of the Republic of Armenia.

Every delegate present is supported by thousands of votes, i.e. thousands of people. You are the ones to make their voices perceptible, and the place to do it is the National Assembly, adopted decisions and the laws. This is an honorary and responsible mission.

Dear Colleagues,

I trust we have a vibrant parliament, where the most influential players of the political field are represented. I am glad that all political forces represented in the previous legislature have been reelected to the RA National Assembly; I also congratulate the advent of the Armenian National Congress to the Armenian Parliament.

I believe that any serious idea or concept, which will appear in any segment of our society, will find its way to the podium of the National Assembly, provided there is a will and expediency. I am also confident that our delegates will not limit themselves to office work exclusively and the society-parliament link will be put on a truly practical basis. Present here are the political forces and political figures who have been maintaining different political views and have dissimilar approaches on different issues. Yes, there will be debates, sometimes heated, there also will be agreements on different issues or each will stick to his or her opinion, there will be mutual understanding, sometimes – not. Important are the objectives for which we are entering political debates. Important are the tools which we choose on the road toward achieving these objectives. Mastery of different, including parliamentary, power leverages, is a means for all of us to achieve key objectives such as Armenia’s empowerment, steep rise in the living standards for our people, curbing of emigration, enhancement of the defensibleness, and other objectives. When means becomes an end in itself, or even worse, when the ends become the means, the entire logic of the political debate is distorted, and it becomes senseless.

The end cannot justify means, never. Even the best of results achieved through the corrupt means will eventually come to naught. Unfortunately, we have much to learn from our own mistakes, and I am hopeful that in the future there will be fewer mistakes. I believe that all of us, in this case, deputes present in this hall, have a mission of establishing new traditions of political struggle and activities, which in the coming years and decades will prevent or minimize any possibility of shocks in our country.

I express gratitude to all political forces and to our nation for jointly conducting rather mature elections. Each election in Armenia should be considerably better than the previous one. We succeeded in conducting such elections and we will also succeed in raising considerably the efficiency and addressness of our works.

Personally I have every intention to work and to work with everyone in the atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation. I hope we will be working with the renewed vigor, always keeping in mind what we have been elected for, what we have promised to our constituencies, which have endowed us with the power which we are representing here today.

In conclusion, I would like to once again suggest to always remember that no one will respect our rules but we, or boundaries of mutual respect – we have to do it ourselves. Nobody may judge us; we are our own judges, defenders of our borders and ever alert guardians of mutual trust, we and nobody else.

I wish us all great success and good works to the Fifth Convocation of the RA National Assembly.