Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the annual meeting of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund (HAAF) Board of Trustees. Addressing the meeting, the Prime Minister stated:
“Your Holiness,
Honorable President of the Republic of Armenia,
Honorary President of the Republic of Artsakh,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am glad for this opportunity and am happy to see you in the capital city of Yerevan. Since its inception, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has been supporting Armenia’s newly established Republic. It actually played a crucial role in the first years of independence. During the years that followed the Fund’s role was as much important, and I think that the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund acted as the indicator of Diaspora’s confidence in Armenia’s authorities. When analyzing the activities of the Fund, one can get serious indications as to what processes are going on in the Diaspora, what kind of concerns are emerging and what kind of solutions can be given to such concerns.
Of course, the political developments that took place in Armenia in April-May gave fresh impetus to our national consolidation, and we must do everything to make sure that consolidation becomes a political product and a permanent political factor.
We have already announced the Government’s priorities, the most important of which is the preservation of the flair for victory in the citizens of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people in order to give it a permanent character.
The biggest political issue in our country used to be the enforcement of our citizens’ right to form a government, since I believe that the problems went worsening from the moment when the public started not to trust the outcome of elections. And therefore, we are facing the challenge of ensuring that after each election the citizen of the Republic of Armenia is on the winning side rather than a specific political force.
I want to emphasize that another top priority for our government is the fight against corruption, ranging from electoral fraud to corruption in the system of public administration and the judiciary. I wish to state that the Government has already taken successful steps to that effect. The process shall continue until we all realize that corruption has been eradicated as a systemic phenomenon in the Republic of Armenia.
Finally, perhaps our most important conceptual and ideological problem is to give an applicable definition to the Republic of Armenia as a State. When the Republic of Armenia was being founded in 1991, it seemed that everything was fine, but I feel that we have committed a conceptual failure. We did not clearly state why the Armenian people founded the Republic of Armenia as a State.
I want to emphasize that the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia has not changed as a result of all the preceding amendments to the Constitution. That is, the preamble of the Constitution remains the same, stipulating that the Republic of Armenia has been founded by the Armenian people, and not by the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, or the citizens of Soviet Armenia. Therefore, the Armenian people should be the sole beneficiary of the Republic of Armenia, and we have to answer one important question: why the Armenian people have founded the Republic of Armenia?
We are convinced that the Republic of Armenia was established by the Armenian people for the following purposes: concentrating the human, financial, intellectual, scientific, economic, spiritual potential of the Armenian people or its significant part on its own territory and ensuring security and natural development for that potential.
On this very conceptual basis, we see the further development of the Republic of Armenia, and this conceptual basis is just what we should be guided by on the way to a free and happy Armenia.
We believe that, as a mid-term outcome of this process, the millennia-long wheel of Armenian people’s emigration must eventually stop and turn back, and the Armenians should eventually start a strategic process of concentration in the Republic of Armenia, strong with Armenian citizenship as an institution, and provide for the security and normal development of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh. That is, the Republic of Armenia should ensure the safety and normal development of the Armenian people. The Armenian people must ensure the security and normal development of the Republic of Armenia.
Thus, we are moving along this path towards a free and happy Armenia, and we are convinced that we have already laid an important milestone on the way to building the country of our dreams.
We are convinced that this process is irreversible, and the Armenian people, the citizens of the Republic of Armenia have triumphed already. That victory is irreversible and is to be continued. Thank you.”