Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is on a working visit to the United States of America.

As Armenpress was told by the Information and Public Relations Department of the RA Prime Minister’s Office, at the end of the first day of their visit to New York, Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan met with around 500 representatives of the local Armenian community in New York’s Saint Vardan Church.

At the entrance of the church, the Prime Minister of Armenia and his wife were welcomed by the leader of the Armenian Eastern Diocese of the USA, Bishop Daniel Fendikyan, Archbishop Vigen Aikazyan and Reverend Mesrop Parsamyan. Representatives of Armenians in New York welcomed Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan with warm applause and great enthusiasm.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomed hundreds of representatives of Armenians in New York and delivered a speech.

“Dear compatriots,

it is really a great honor and pleasure for me to meet you. Last year, when we visited the church, which was not planned because we thought it would be a problem of time, but it turned out that we visited, I had a great feeling of regret that we did not plan a meeting with the Armenians of New York. This year we thought we wouldn’t leave New York without meeting you. So I am very happy.

Not yesterday, on the first day, we had quite a good and impressive meeting in Los Angeles, and I gave a speech at that meeting, where I spoke about several important aspects of our national life. I don’t want to repeat what I said the other day in Los Angeles. In general, I would like to share the following impressions of the past 1 year and 5 months since the revolution.

The most important impression is the following. in general, the path of change is quite a difficult path, and when the revolution happened, the most important challenge that we are witnessing after the revolution is to make people understand that everything that is said and happened is really reality, because as strange as it may seem, not everyone and not always registers that it is really reality.

For example, I don’t understand how it is possible to be a public official in the Republic of Armenia after all these events and political changes and think that it is possible to take a bribe again, commit some illegality. That is the most surprising question for me, the answer to which I cannot find. You know that very often, every month, sometimes every week, some official is arrested with a bribe, and I cannot understand the logic of the work of those people’s minds. I always ask that question: don’t those people watch TV, don’t those people read the news, are those people from the Republic of Armenia or not?

This is perhaps the biggest challenge, because after the revolution, when the celebration is over and you go to your daily work, sometimes you come across views, suggestions: what happened, all this is good, but when are we going to divide our money, sectors, import quotas, and you realize that, in reality, this phenomenon is not widespread among a small group. This is perhaps the biggest challenge.

I want to repeat once again that everything that has happened and is happening is a reality, and those who will not record this, in their case, regardless of where they are, cannot be compromised. It seems to people that everything will remain the same, but instead of Serzh Sargsyan, another person will be sitting there. From the beginning, there was such an expression: Is this why we are making a revolution, that is, people who violate traffic rules, are fined, get upset, say, “We were making a revolution for this?”, a thief commits a theft, is caught, and says, “We were making a revolution for this,” a bribe taker takes a bribe, is caught, says, “We were making a revolution for this,” another cannot hire his friend. he says: was this why we were doing the revolution? That is, there was such a perception of the revolution that we could assume that those who worked for many years to get a fat position or to place their friends in a fat position and it didn’t work out, and they think that the revolution happened, what we wanted and couldn’t do, we will do now, we should have earned that money, we should be unpunished.

This is perhaps the biggest challenge that exists, but I also want to record that, as I said, I do not imagine compromising with such phenomena, because if I suddenly enter into a compromise with such phenomena, it will mean that these changes, the revolution that took place, are simply meaningless.

Therefore, our mission is not to reach some status and enjoy that status, but our task is to bring deep, substantial, institutional changes in the country, and to change the quality of our country, the quality of life in our country, the quality of the work of institutions in our country. This is a path where there will be no compromises. I consider that I have received a very strong mandate from the people of the Republic of Armenia, so that corruption, illegalities, patronage, and monopolies are eradicated from Armenia, and this should be done to the end and unreservedly.

I want to assure you that now I am even more determined than a year ago, because I understand that this determination is the only method by which we should solve all the problems facing our country, the result of which should be the following: Armenia should be a truly democratic, truly sovereign, truly social, truly legal state. This is our problem. Thank you for supporting us, supporting me in solving this problem. Now I will gladly answer all the questions that interest you. Thank you.”

After the speech of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the representatives of the Armenian community in New York asked him questions. Nikol Pashinyan answered the fight against bribery, improving the quality of public administration in Armenia, priorities of the economy, overcoming unemployment, creating new jobs, encouraging people’s economic activity, reforms and vision of the education sector in Armenia, priorities for the development of the technology sector, strengthening the connection of Diaspora Armenian youth with the homeland and preserving the Armenian identity, introducing innovative medical technologies and a number of other questions.

Attached is the video of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s meeting with representatives of the Armenian community in New York.

An exhibition dedicated to the velvet revolution was also opened in the territory of St. Vardan Church in New York.