Pashinyan: Armenia's independence is a platform for ensuring the security and freedom of citizens on its internationally recognised territory

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YEREVAN, 21 September. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed a congratulatory message on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of independence of the Republic of Armenia, which reads as follows:/pp ‘September 21 is the Independence Day of the Republic of Armenia, and today we mark the 33rd anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia./pp

On this day in 1991, an Independence referendum was held in Armenia, during which citizens went to polling stations to answer the following question written on the ballot: Do you agree that the Republic of Armenia should be an independent, democratic state outside the USSR?/pp

At that time, 95 percent of citizens eligable to vote answered Yes to the question, and the Republic of Armenia became an independent state./pp

Since that day, our country has gone through many trials: wars, thousands of victims, blockade, economic and political crises, emigration, as a result of which we realized more objectively that the question put in the referendum in 1991 needs to be answered every day, and we need to answer that question not only by making a note on the ballot in the polling station, but also with our behavior, manners and activities./pp

The core and purpose of the activity of the Government of the Republic of Armenia is to every day practically answer Yes to the question posed in the 1991 referendum, and I must report with satisfaction that the level of independence of our country is growing day by day thanks to democracy, balancing and a balanced foreign policy./pp

Since the People's, non-violent, velvet revolution of 2018, the benchmark of all our decisions has been and continues to be independence, statehood, democracy, the concretization and objectification of these concepts on the basis of international rules. In this process, we have made mistakes and had failures, but by reaching the brink of losing independence in 2020, we received a real opportunity to put the theoretical thesis of the durability of our state on practical rails with the strategy of Real Armenia./pp

Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,/pp

Yesterday, today and tomorrow is the independence referendum. Every day is a referendum on Independence and each of us makes a choice every day./pp

The referendum question is answered every day by everyone who pays defined taxes (Yes) and hides taxes (No), every official who acts honestly (Yes) and takes bribes (No), every working person (Yes) and every individual who treats work with complacency (No), anyone who respects the law (Yes) and considers breaking the law as a means of raising self-esteem (No)./pp

I bow to the people who said Yes and are saying Yes in the Independence Referendum, I love them and I'm proud of them. And I apologize for all the obvious and possible mistakes that we have made and, will continue to make, because man is fallible./pp

The important thing is not to lose sight of the key goal: independence, statehood, the Republic of Armenia, as a platform and mechanism to ensure the security, freedom, and well-being of its own citizens in its internationally recognized territory of 29 thousand 743 square kilometers.-0-/pp nbsp;/p