Honorable Deputy President of the National Assembly,
Honorable Members of the National Assembly,
Honorable Cabinet Members,
Honorable guests,
Dear people,

First of all, I would like to thank all the Members of the National Assembly for the interesting discussions. During the speeches, numerous questions were raised, criticisms were voiced, which deserve a specific response.

But my special attention was drawn to and I must mainly respond to those speeches in which it was said, either with disdain, or criticism, or as a consent or as support, that the Government is focused on, or is implementing a policy and strategy for building, or establishing, or developing the state.

Regardless of the tone or pretext with which this was said, I must emphasize that indeed, building statehood is the absolute priority for us today.

But what does this mean, what can this mean in the 34th year of independence? Can building statehood still be a priority 34 years after independence?
Yes, because here we are talking not only about the state itself, but also about its essence, purpose and content.

I actually touched on this topic during last year's discussion of the Report in my speech on Real Armenia and Historical Armenia. But the current discussion made it clear to me that there is an urgent need to touch upon another layer of the topic, to clarify another layer, and this is related to the substantive nature of the Third Republic.

The problem is that in the late 1980s, the idea of Armenia’s independence was generated not for the sake of independence and statehood, but for the sake of resolving the Karabakh issue.

In other words, we created an independent state not for a better life, but for the Karabakh issue. This is a political reality, which is confirmed by research. In 1989, the idea of independence prevailed as a result of the fact that the Karabakh Committee lost hope of resolving the Karabakh issue within the framework of the legal order of the USSR, and as one of the leaders of the Karabakh Committee said, independence is necessary for the resolution of the Karabakh issue.

Of course, after the declaration and achievement of independence, the agenda of establishing statehood existed, but for about 30 years we have built a model of a state that was mainly and primarily dedicated to the resolution of the Karabakh issue, the Karabakh movement, and with the logic of sacrificing everything for it. I am not saying this as a criticism, but as a reality, because we have all been at peace with that model and goal, and I myself have been fully at peace with that model, until the moment when, as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, while gaining access to facts and information, I gradually, step by step, initially vaguely and then objectively understood that if for us independence and statehood are a means for the solution of the Karabakh issue in the way we see it, for a number of external actors the Karabakh issue is a means to jeopardize our independence, statehood, prevent development, and prosperity, and then to put an end to our statehood. The implementation of that ultimate goal was launched already in 2018, the implementation of that goal entered its final stage in September 2020 and reached its peak in May 2021, and that ultimate goal also has contributors in Armenia, and these contributors think that the Karabakh issue is important, and not independence and statehood.

The Circular 004 of ARF, the interviews of prominent spiritual figures quoted here, and the statements of the former leadership of Armenia are within this framework, within this logic.

Today, the second act of this epoch-making ideological clash is taking place. The ruling majority, and I personally say that any attempt to continue the Karabakh movement is destructive, because it has been and will be a tool to prevent Armenia's statehood, independence, and sovereignty. Unfortunately, we understood this too late, and the opposition essentially says that Armenia's statehood has had and has only one goal and meaning: the Karabakh movement, the Karabakh issue, so the Karabakh movement must continue, regardless of the consequences.

But I not only disagree with this point of view, but also, looking back on the seven years of our rule, I have noted something that I can now voice.

The political team that came to power in Armenia with the People's, non-violent, velvet Revolution of 2018 has demonstrated intuition and courage under a barrage of cruel trials and blows, being able to face, step by step, piece by piece, the fact that the Karabakh movement has objectively ended long ago and that our collective effort to continue it is only being used to put an end to Armenia's already weakened independence and statehood.

And facing this reality, the ruling majority has adopted a strategy according to which the Republic of Armenia is not a tool for resolving the Karabakh issue or, as they say, another “liberation” issue, but a tool for ensuring the well-being, freedom, happiness, and security of the citizens of Armenia. That the Republic of Armenia, with an area of 29,743 square kilometers, is not a means to have a larger homeland, but is the homeland-state of our dreams and our final destination as a people.

Dear chairman, distinguished MPs, distinguished Cabinet members, distinguished guests, dear people,

For the past 7 years, we have been leading the Republic of Armenia. We have seen defeat and failure, we have seen weeping and gnashing of teeth, we have seen tragedy and wrath. But our victory and strength lies in the fact that we have led where it seemed impossible to lead, where there is usually no leadership, but chaos and panic, collapse and destruction. We have led, and in parallel, sought the opportunity to have a real state, real independence, and therefore freedom, prosperity, and happiness for our homeland-state, the Republic of Armenia, and its people. And we have created that opportunity.

Today I can say this loudly and confidently: we have reached the culmination of our history, and in our thousand-year history we have never had such a chance to ensure the permanence of our state, and all the risks that exist today have always existed. But the risks have been continuous, because we failed to see and therefore failed to use the opportunity to manage and neutralize these risks, and today we see, manage and neutralize them, and the steps that we have been taking in recent years fit into this context: the agenda for normalizing relations with neighbors, the border demarcation process, the finalization of the text of the Peace Agreement, the “Crossroads of Peace” project. All these are steps that place the state and the opportunity for citizens to live freely, safely and prosperously in it at the very center, above all, and this is our strategy and this is our greatest tribute of respect to all our martyrs.

Dear guests, dear people,

The set of these thoughts is the ideology of the "Real Armenia", the practical goal of which is the formulation of an applicable concept ensuring the permanence of the Republic of Armenia, and that formula is being formulated, if not to say is already formulated.

Today, a Revolution has begun in Armenia, which is, if not more, at least as important as the People's, non-violent, velvet Revolution of 2018, and that Revolution will also end with a popular victory. The socio-psychological revolution of the “Real Armenia” is taking place. The key point of that revolution is that for the first time in the last several centuries, our internationally recognized state and our homeland are identical: our homeland is Armenia. The state in which we live is also Armenia. The opposition still does not accept this, does not understand what the slogan “The motherland is the state” means and what explanation it has.

And the explanation is that for at least the last six centuries, we have lived in a situation when our homeland was Armenia, and the state was Persia, the homeland was Armenia but the state was the Ottoman Empire, the homeland was Armenia, the but state was the Russian Empire, the homeland was Armenia but the state was the Soviet Union.

And as the simple listing shows, we have mostly been hateful to the state, but the homeland was dear and cherished. And this socio-psychology has become an acquired reflex for us, hatred of the state and its attributes and structures, a desperate and irregular love for the homeland.

This is the reason why the opposition is desperately crying out: “People, stand up, these people are collecting money for the budget,” because the budget and taxes are attributes of the state, and therefore, subconsciously or according to an involuntary reflex, they are hated. They do not want the state to be here, they want the homeland to be here, because the homeland does not have a state border, but the state does, the homeland does not have a criminal and civil code, but the state does, the homeland ultimately does not have a tax code, but the state does, the homeland does not have citizenship and civil responsibility, but the state does.

And today, hatred towards not our Government, but the relict hatred towards the state is manifested in the opposition’s speech, because the “Real Armenia” revolution says, “The motherland is the state. If you love your motherland, strengthen your state”

For some, this is a hateful slogan because it confronts all of us with the imperative of replacing toast patriotism with practical and everyday patriotism, because it takes us out of the status of those huddled under doors at overseas conferences with no power to decide our fate, waiting for others to decide it, and forces us to decide our own fate, making complex, difficult, sometimes unimaginable decisions... but decisions that have the homeland-state, its sustainability, the security and well-being of its citizens as their destination.

And yes, all our strategic decisions since 2018 have been in this spirit, and yes, thanks to it, today we have such a chance to have a state that we have never had, we have never had, and I say this in the most responsible way.

So what needs to be done to use that chance? First, we need to overcome the relict (residual) hatred towards the state that accompanies and guides us like an acquired reflex. And in parallel with this, we need to look at everything from the point of view of the state interest, accepting and recognizing the primacy of that interest. And the state interest, as I have had the opportunity to say, is economic development, because only through economic development is it possible to implement the concept that the state is an instrument of citizen welfare, with the understanding that welfare includes domestic safety, health, freedom, justice, and security.

Only through economic development is it possible to ensure domestic safety, health, freedom, justice, and security. And for economic development, peace and legality are needed.

And to ensure all this, education and work are needed, work and education. This is the whole formula.

Looking at our region and the world with a new look, with new eyes, is, yes, an educational process. And looking at ourselves in the region with a new look and with new eyes is also an educational process, because the region where there is Armenia as a homeland is one thing, and where there is Armenia-state, homeland-state, the Republic of Armenia is something completely different.

And this perspective reveals extremely interesting nuances. A huge part of the discourse within Armenia is supplemented by what others say, what they say in other capitals. The problem here is not only that some Armenian political and public actors often become propaganda agents of foreign discourse, but also that the most important question, the most important of the most important, is left out: what do we say? This is often not even emphasized, and this is the result of the relict thinking that foreign actors should decide for us, according to which we either have nothing to say, or what we have to say is not important. Meanwhile, what is most important for our destiny is what we have to say, because what we have to say is the primary tool for controlling our destiny.

And we say, there will be no new escalation and war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, there will be peace. Why and how?

Armenia and Azerbaijan have recognized each other's territorial integrity, sovereignty, the inviolability of internationally recognized borders, the inadmissibility of the use of force and the threat of force. Moreover, this is not only at the political, but also at the legal level, because the Regulations on the joint activities of the Commission on the Demarcation and Border Security Issues of the State Border between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Commission on the Demarcation of the State Border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia is now a document of the highest legal force in both countries, and in that document, by adopting the Alma Ata Declaration as the basic principle of demarcation, both Armenia and Azerbaijan have made the Alma Ata Declaration the basic principle of regulating relations in general. And in that Declaration, the inviolability of the borders of the Soviet republics, recognition of each other's territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, and non-use of force and the threat of force are the basic principles.

And so, I once again call on all forces operating in Armenia and Azerbaijan to be extremely responsible, not to make statements that directly or indirectly contradict this logic, not to question this logic. And I officially declare: The Government of Armenia will not make statements and actions that directly or indirectly contradict this logic, or question this logic. And I call on the Government of Azerbaijan not to make statements and actions that directly or indirectly contradict this logic, or question this logic. Armenia and Azerbaijan have reached an agreement on the draft agreement on the establishment of peace and interstate relations, negotiations on the draft agreement have been completed, and as I showed in my report of April 15, there are no obstacles to the signing of the Agreement. The text of the agreement has been agreed upon, forget about the Armenia-Azerbaijan escalation and war, we must open a new page in the history of the South Caucasus together, and we are ready to simultaneously sign the Peace Agreement and the joint Armenia-Azerbaijan application to the OSCE on the dissolution of the Minsk Group structures.

I would also like to say that the principles of territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, non-use of force and threat of force also underlie our understanding of our relations with our other neighbors. But I want to draw your attention to the fact that only by recognizing the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and inviolability of borders of our neighbors will we ourselves recognize the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and inviolability of borders of the Republic of Armenia, and this is the difference between the perspectives of statehood and non-statehood, and this is the change, the education, the transformation that we have brought and are bringing to Armenia, this is the practical implementation of the principle "The motherland is the state. If you love your motherland, strengthen your state", this is the principle that makes prosperity possible in the Republic of Armenia.
Honorable Deputy President of the National Assembly, Honorable MPs, Honorable Cabinet Members, Honorable Guests, Dear People.

I do not ignore any criticism voiced here, regardless of how fair or unfair it is, how well-grounded or how far-fetched, how complete or how half-baked. But I also cannot help but share my conviction that the numerous problems we have in the sphere of governance, public and economic life, and the judicial and legal system are also connected with the ideological, educational, and socio-psychological systems that have dominated and continue to dominate us, which fit into the context of the above-described relations and contradictions of the concepts of “homeland” and “state.”

We often do not see that dominance and influence, its causal connection with our actions and practices, we do not see the connection between our everyday conversations and the processes taking place around us in the external environment. But that connection exists, it exists every day, it is direct, and the problem is not its existence, but our ignorance about these connections, interactions, risks, and the possibilities of managing them.

So, what is the solution to this? This solution is also expressed in the ideology of the "Real Armenia", which states: "Transformation is not only not shameful, but also a vital necessity, transformation is a key condition for viability. Both the individual and the society and the state must deepen the skill of reflection to the genetic level. The truth that has not been reflected is no longer the truth, the goal that has not been reflected is an end in itself, the conviction that has not been reflected is an impression left over from the past, the ideal that has not been reflected is incomplete. The only formula for viability in a changing life is reflection, self-reflection, the ability to change and transform."

Dear colleagues, the world is changing on a daily basis and if we cannot adapt to the changing world, we will simply be left out of it.

The mission of the government and the ruling majority is the following: to lead those vital transformations that, based on our national values, will make our state more viable, paving the way for its happy future.

Despite all the criticisms voiced here, this is exactly what is happening in the Republic of Armenia today. Moreover, I would say that this is the most important of all the events taking place in Armenia today, and the deep solutions to a significant part of the issues raised here are connected with this very process.

And during the discussions, our opposition colleagues did everything to instill fear and anxiety in the citizens of the Republic of Armenia regarding state-centered reforms. They instilled fear and anxiety regarding the real estate tax, although as I have shown, without these taxes the well-being of any citizen is impossible, they instilled fear and anxiety regarding transparent and accountable practices, although without them public unity and social justice are impossible, they instilled fear regarding universal declaration, although this system does not take anything from the needy person, but only gives, gives tens of billions of drams to invest in their healthcare and education.
They instilled fear towards the state, but our people cannot be afraid of their own state, our people cannot be afraid of the ideology of the “Real Armenia,” because the ideology of the Real Armenia says: Citizen of the Republic of Armenia, you are the state, you are the Republic of Armenia.

Glory to the martyrs and long live the Republic of Armenia.