Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sarkissian and Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II today attended the inauguration ceremony of the newly-elected Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan

In his speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated, in part:

“Honorable President of the Republic of Armenia,
Your Holiness,
Dear Yerevan City Council members,
Dear Guests,
Dear Mayor Hayk,

I am congratulating all of us on this occasion. Mr. Mayor, you were right to say that the key point of today’s event is that the Armenian citizens have made a decision on who should be Mayor of Yerevan

Some keep insisting that the citizens’ mood at the time of the decision was very high, but it does not matter. Yes, at one time the mood will be high, once for the not so high, the third time, the usual, the fourth time, the work, once the weather is bad, once the good, the international and the regional situation will be once, once again but it does not matter, the key point is that the decision-maker and the freedom of decision, the freedom of expression of the people, should never be questioned.

The important thing is not the mood but the one who makes the decision. And the decision-making substance is the citizen of the Republic of Armenia, voters. This is a tradition that exists in Armenia and is founded irreversibly.

Yerevan is a powerful city and its power sometimes can touch us too deep. I wish to especially mention one of the main creators of Yerevan’s image, Alexander Tamanyan, who really opened a new chapter in our city’s history which, in fact, is due to the fate, at least in this part of our homeland, was on the verge of loss of urban life and urban culture.

Together with his colleagues, Alexander Tamanyan brought about a great revival for our people. In general, asked who the key people who have shaped our modern image, the image of a citizen who came out in the square and said that the owner of our country and homeland, I would give me three names: Komitas, Tumanyan and Tamanyan. And I want you to pay tribute and bring our humbleness to these three powerful pillars of our nation, our identity.

What is the main mission of those people vested with authority in any situation? The most important mission is not to mislead people, to be honest with people, because we mistakenly suppose that the Mayor of Yerevan, the Council of Elders, will not make mistakes, absolutely none of us is perfect, and we can be mistaken at every moment, but it is very important not to deceive people.

It is extremely important to understand why a mistake happened: may be because we were inclined to mislead and deceive people or just to make a mistake because man is prone to mistakes.

And our most important mission is to never deceive our people in order not to lose the right of looking directly into their eyes, and more, to maintain the right to apologize after making a mistake, to have strength, to value the importance. The rest are technical issues that will be solved and corrected.

I want to speak about the new capital of Yerevan, the new capital. Yerevan, yes, is the capital of Armenians and why do we say so? not only because Yerevan is the capital of Armenians, but also because people representing all layers of Armenians, all the provinces of our historical homeland, people living in Armenia, all the regions of our present-day Armenia, people representing the villages, people representing all the circles of our Diaspora live in Yerevan.

Yerevan has a long history during which some personalities used to dominate in our city. I do not know how that has been decided, but there is a great symbol that Tigran Mansuryan and Arthur Ispiryan handed over the mayoralty symbol to the mayor. I want to hope and believe that this is a message from New Armenia to the new capital, the dominant type of citizen because we describe that in Estonia, New Yerevan should be those who respect other people are respectful of the law, respectful They regard education as key to education, ability to respect others, their ability to respect, the country, the state, and the ability to respect the law.

And, most honestly, I often remember Tigran Mansuryan, remembering an article about him. when he received a regular award somewhere, it included a monetary reward and Tigran Mansuryan, once back to Armenia, went to the State Tax Service and asked how much income tax he had to pay. I hope this is the image of a citizen of New Armenia, who does not care about what he needs to do in order not to pay taxes.

Today, we have to assure that there are no thieves in our government, in the Yerevan City Hall; there are no people who steal the taxes paid by our people. People need to be convinced that their taxes are not stolen.

Yes, there are still instances of ineffective use of money; it is still a way that we have to go through that problem, but every citizen should treat every penny he has paid in the same way as he puts that money into his own porch which is designed for family needs.

The biggest criticism addressed to our political team is that we are too young. I do not know whether it is a privilege or a disadvantage, but I find it very important that in no way these young people’s presence be interpreted as a denial of elders’ earnings, abilities and capacities.

And we understand that even if there is such a perception, then it is our omissions, the mistake, and we must do everything so that if there is such an idea, it will be corrected and suddenly it will not happen in a single stage in Armenia , when people are considered to be after some age that they should do nothing or have any work.

I want to bring my appreciation and humbleness here to all the citizens of our country, who laid the stone on the stone and for many years built Yerevan.

These are architects, builders, managers, specialists, and just people, and I want to bow down to each of them and say that we are not only underestimating their earnings but also we are obliged to make that possibility, that potential is sufficiently satisfactory to be involved in building the future of our country.

And I also want to say that in a political sense we should be guided by the principle of non-denial of people who previously had any involvement, and I call it a political racism. We should not allow political racism in Armenia.

The Yerevan City Council elections were of national significance because they started the process of conducting snap parliamentary elections in Armenia. And in these processes, we must build a new reality where each person’s potential, regardless of age, regardless of the place and extent of their previous involvement, but of course considering the content of such involvement, should be used for sake of our common cause.

We have dreamed, and the time has come to make that dream come true. And we invite all those who dream, dreams and are ready to dedicate our national dreams to reality, and we invite all those people to cooperate.

In this context, I want to say that, of course, there are very big political debates, contradictions and their causes, but again we should not be led and we are not guided by the old one, with the intention of denying, erasing, demolishing and destroying the former.

When it was said that the oath sworn text was to be handed to the Yerevan History Museum, I thought that yes, we should also say that you see, during this time, there were state traditions that are good traditions and people have worked on them, how it should be all this, the protocol.

They are the result of work and values. We have never said that in the history of the Third Republic, or in the last 20-25 years, no values have been created in the country. When we hear charges, it does not mean that we deny the values created by the authorities, by the opposition, by citizens, by the civil society.

Our task is to open a new page in our nation’s history, where national unity will really take place, and there will be an agreement, which does not mean that everyone agrees and agrees with everything.

It just means that everyone agrees on a few key points, namely that people in the Republic of Armenia are equal before the law that there should be no privileges in the Republic of Armenia that corruption should not be in Armenia In the Republic a citizen should be respected.

The most important requirement of our citizens is not to be deceived and humiliated, and our greatest mission is to encourage our citizens to trust their own strength, to help others stand on their feet, straighten their back, what they have already done, and now they are entitled to walk proudly, freely and happily towards the nationwide dreams of our people.

Dear Mr. Marutyan,
Dear City Council Members,

Reiterating my congratulations, I wish you efficient work in your service to Yerevan residents, to the citizens of the Republicof Armenia, the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia. So, come on, let us get down to work.”