Dear people, proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
Proud citizens of the Artsakh Republic,
Proud Armenians of the Diaspora,

I congratulate all of us on Armenia’s Independence Day!

With the referendum held on this very day 29 years ago, our people unanimously proclaimed Armenia’s independence. Conceived as early as in 1988 with the Artsakh movement, the referendum of September 21, 1991 is an important milestone in the history of our people. The referendum’s outturn demonstrated the free will of the Armenian people to have an independent and democratic state.

We faced many trials throughout the past 29 years: war, socio-economic bottlenecks, renewed tides of emigration, rigged elections, October 27, political repression, March 1, emergency situations and despair. However, these hardships failed to break our people’s determination. The non-violent, velvet, people’s revolution of 2018 came as a vivid evidence of nationwide optimism, civic stance, which reaffirmed that the Armenian people’s will to have a sovereign, free, powerful and happy state was stronger than ever.

The eternity of our sovereign statehood is at the core of our national agenda, and we must focus all our efforts on the daily service of that agenda.

Dear compatriots,

Today I will make public the strategy of Armenia’s transformation by the year 2050, which is not a dogmatic tenet, but a mechanism for further discussion and clarifications that will help us monitor those decisions and practicalities leading to the implementation of our ideas about the Republic of Armenia in 2050.

I do believe that it ushers in a new era in our public life, when we govern the state with strategic approaches, where the decisions made today have a far-reaching and strategic impact, targeting the next 10, 20, 30 years to come. This is a mechanism to make future planning and construction an integral part of our daily work.

In 1991, we did not know what Armenia would be like in 2020, and due to many objective and subjective factors, we did not take the time to formulate our ideas about the present day and make their implementation a daily task.

But sooner or later time inevitably puts us in front of such a problem. We cannot wait until the year 2050 or 2100 comes to see what Armenia has become. We must plan the future Armenia, design and start building it from today. Accordingly, among the multitude of often confusing issues, priority should be given to those that connect us with 2050, 2100.

The citizens of the Republic of Armenia, who will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of independence, should see that we have cared not only about ourselves, but also about them; they should feel our love and responsibility for the future of Armenia, that is, for their present day. They must see that our dreams of that day have been materialized.

I am convinced that we have enough will, skills, unity and wisdom to fill our daily agenda with such activity and provide the necessary institutional premises for Armenia’s eternity and our people’s survival. This is the key mission of our generation, and we will accomplish it together.

And therefore,
Long live Freedom!
Long live the Republic of Armenia!
Long live us, and our children, who live and will live in a free and happy Armenia!