Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with residents of Ashtarak and Aparan during his working visit to Aragatsotn Marz. In his speech addressed to Ashtarak residents, Nikol Pashinyan stated, in part:

“I am hereby greeting the proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia. These are not just words, because the revolution’s greatest achievement is our political will, civic stance and national pride; because pride and self-esteem is what matters most to us, while the rest is what we call a technical issue.

What has been the problem of our country? In our country the citizen did not feel himself. What has changed in our country? the citizen feels loyal to him. And I do not know what our government will do and what successes will be, but I know that the people of Armenia, the citizen of Armenia, will never overcome this victory.

The prime ministers, the governments, the National Assembly are transient; the surviving citizen is the only surviving, the only surviving children. And never a citizen of Armenia has the right, his dignity, his voice, his power to give up, because the citizen of Armenia is responsible not to the government, the citizen of Armenia is responsible for the future generations.

We used to build and are now building our present day, but we must also build our children’s future. And our greatest problem is to break the sense of despair.

We have broken the feeling of despair, the people have won, the people have won politically, but people need to have a winner’s feeling in economic terms.

We say that this revolutionary revolution must follow the economic revolution. During this time we have filled our souls, the pits of our consciousness. In the near future we have to fill the pits of our roads, the pits of our walls, and make our country prosperous.

But I always stress the same thing and I want to make this record very solid and strong at this stage as the revolution took place. I have had the opportunity to speak and speak for 10 years or more on this platform, and I have always said the same thing: the revolution will take place when each of us makes a move for the sake of the victory of that revolution.

The revolution took place not when I or our political team took some steps because we were constantly making steps, maybe it was a bit uncertain, and we were upset, but after all, The revolution took place when each of you made his own move.

We did not make the revolution, you did the revolution. This is not our victory, this is your victory. We are just glad to have been able to serve your victory because I have always considered my political mission to serve and say and say, our greatest mission is to become a land under the feet of our people that they stand firm upon us, direct their back and walk proudly on a simple front to a mighty state, a happy individual.

And I have come to tell you that you will no longer believe those who try to persuade us that we are a small, poor, helpless nation. We are still a small nation, but we are a great people.

We have been a great people and we will be a great people because our souls are strong and unstable because they have passed through genocide, massacres, poverty, persecution, we have not broken and won, we will not break and win.
We are a great people and we are expecting a great future because today we have managed to make great, we have been able to do that today, when we say to Armenia in any part of the world, they understand a powerful, proud people that without one victim has managed to do something that In other countries, tens of thousands of casualties have been slaughtered.

Last time I said these words during the revolution, but now I will say these words more often in the future. For a long time Armenia has been discussing that people do not believe in any political figure, do not believe in any political force.

I have always said and now I can repeat that you do not need us to believe in you, our problem is not that you believe in us, our task is that you believe in yourself, believe in your strength, believe in your talent, believe in hard work, believe in your power because you are powerful.

We believe that the Republic of Armenia will be one of the most powerful countries in the world just because we will create the necessary conditions for every citizen of Armenia to be able to earn a living with his fair sweat and hard work.

We say that Armenia is no longer a country of poverty; the Republic of Armenia is a land of wealth. We will create the opportunity for a citizen of Armenia to get richer and enrich others, work and create added value, the income we need for our national dreams.

We are small, but we will no longer go shrinking, instead we will grow. We will no longer say that we are few, but we are Armenians, we will say, we are many and we are Armenian, we are strong and we are Armenian, we are the winners and they are Armenian.

The name of Armenia, the name of Armenia every day, every weekday, every month and every year, is increasingly voiced around the world, because we are the people of Narekatsi, the people of Marshal Baghramyan, Tigran Mets and Hovhannes Tumanyan.

We are a nation that we are tired of losing. We are tired of losing our homeland, losing our land, losing one another, losing love and respect.

We will no longer gain and will have new achievements, and for that you need only one thing - each of you realize your power, realize your power, realize your greatness, see what you did.

You did something that all the analytical centers of the world considered impossible. They say that there can not be a change of power in Armenia.

Let us admit, many of you thought so, that they could not be. And our role was in just one thing. we have helped you to understand how powerful you are. And I love you for your might, I believe in you and bow before your power.

So, long live freedom! Long live the Republic of Armenia! We and our children are living and will live in a free and happy Armenia. I love all of you, I am proud of you all, I bow before you all.”

At the meeting with Aparan residents, Nikol Pashinyan recalled the day when he met them while passing by Aparan. “I remember what we talked about and that we agreed to win. We won together. You know, it does not matter, how many months have elapsed since April and May.

Every time there is a chance to congratulate you because many people seem to believe that victory is change the government or the prime minister in the country. It was not the victory, but the fact that you decided that changes should take place and who should be prime minister. The revolution’s pivotal meaning consisted in your decision, and you will do so in the future as well.

Governments will change, prime ministers will change, National Assembly will be changed, there will be no change, after which you will be the prime minister who will be a member of the National Assembly. This is revolution, this is your victory, and your victory is irreversible.”

Touching upon the snap parliamentary elections in December, the Acting Prime Minister said: “I want to say to all the citizens of Armenia, to all the voters: Do not let anyone tell you who to vote for. Follow political processes, campaigns, and make a decision on your own. Our country’s tragedies stemmed from the failure to make a free choice.

We say figuratively that we will cut the hand of those who give bribes. No one should try to humiliate the citizen of Armenia by offering 5, 10 or 20, at least 100 thousand drams, or even 1000 dollars: the Armenian citizen’s vote is priceless. It is an absolute value, and do not let anyone tell you your choice.

No longer will you happen to vote for a candidate but have someone else elected in Armenia. I am not the only guarantor for that. You are the ones to guarantee the freedom of choice because you are the carriers of the future destiny of our country.”

Speaking about further steps of the revolution, Nikol Pashinyan said: “A citizen of Armenia is sovereign, he is the bearer of power, and you are going to form a government. I am now prime minister because you have decided so; otherwise I will not be the prime minister of Armenia. It is ruled out that we may ever try to hold to power because the sovereign power belongs to the people in Armenia. The power is yours and you have to keep your power. And this will be the next important phase of the revolution. Every ballot is sacred, because our citizens are going to vote for the future of the country.”

The Acting Prime Minister noted that Armenia should no longer be a country of poverty, and the government’s task is to help people work and win their bread with fair sweat.

“We must succeed an economic breakthrough just as we did a political revolution: every citizen should work and create a product in our country. We are a nation of heroes and victories. While despair seemed to have the upper hand, our citizens turned out to be winners in the final game. And this is not the first such victory in our nation’s history.

When we faced the Bash-Aparan and Sardarabad battles, no rational man could say that our people had a chance to triumph in those battles because we were supposed to be defeated according to all standards, but we triumphed just as we did in April-May. Analytical centers around the world kept predicting that our people had no chance to win. Nevertheless, we won because we do not care for easy victories anymore.

We want to do the impossible, since what seems to be impossible will henceforth be possible for us. This is our historical and political mission. And yes, we are a nation that is not interested in making easy goals. We will always set great goals. We will always defy the hardest of challenges and meet them because we are a powerful, victorious, free and happy nation. We are not poor wretch; we are not a small people.

We have tackled the hardest challenge: we curbed our poverty; we did away with the despair and defied our ill-luck. Therefore, we are invincible, and no one can beat us neither inside nor outside Armenia,” Nikol Pashinyan said in his speech.