As part of his official visit to Germany, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with representatives of the German-Armenian community and local community structures in the presbytery of the German Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Cologne.
Prime Minister Pashinyan, welcoming the attendees, specifically noted:
“It is a great honor for me to be in the Presbytery of the Diocese of Germany of the Armenian Apostolic Church today. Basically, we can say that Cologne is the capital of the Armenian community in Germany, and it is no coincidence that we start our official visit from this city.
It is a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity of such a meeting today, and I want to emphasize what a major change has taken place in Armenia, around Armenia and in the relations between Armenia and the world.
I can say the following. After the famous changes, the Republic of Armenia has become more visible and more audible to the civilized world. This is indeed a reality. sometimes a little uncomfortable situation arises for me, when representatives of various powerful civilized countries of the world directly say during discussions and contacts with us that we have a lot to learn from you. This is, of course, a very strange expression, and to be honest, sometimes I don’t know how to behave because the situation is awkward. ? But by and large, when one, two, three, four such phrases are repeated, I think we should not hesitate to record. yes’, we have problems in many areas, but there is one area in which we are truly considered a leading country in the world today. it is the sphere of building a society free of violence and achieving changes without violence, where we can say that we are a leading country in the world, yes.
Today, political change and keeping public life in general free of violence is one of the greatest challenges that exists in the world, and today the world recognizes that we have achieved great success in this area. I want to emphasize that I am not saying this as a reason to brag or be arrogant, but so that we can record this situation and with this every representative of our people and we as a collective have more confidence in the way of building our future, our homeland, our state.
Today we can record that we are on the way to or already are at least in the family of civilized nations. We say this not to be arrogant, as Paruyr Sevak rightly stated at one time, and we are faithful to that formula today: we do not prefer ourselves to anyone, but we must also state that we really have something to say and do in the modern world. That action is positive, carries universal logic, and what is said and done is interesting to the world and civilization.
This is a very important record, and I think that what happened could not have happened with the efforts of a single group, individual, party. This is the result of our nationwide efforts that we have been able to invest in the process of putting our country on a great path of transformation. We showed an unprecedented example of nationwide cooperation in April-May, and in fact, every Armenian contributed to the changes that took place in the Republic of Armenia.
And, finally, I am very happy to record that for the first time in the Republic of Armenia, parliamentary elections were held, the free, fair, legality of which is not disputed not only by the international community, but also within Armenia, for the first time we had elections, the results of which are not contested in the Constitutional Court.
These are indeed important changes, but we face an even greater challenge. We need political changes to be transformed into economic changes, to move from a political revolution to an economic revolution, so that the level of social protection, economic activity and well-being of people in our country continuously increases. This is our mission, and this is not the task of an individual party, individual, or even the government. This is a nationwide thing to do, and I am convinced that our people have enough potential to continuously strengthen and strengthen their homeland and international to occupy a larger and more permanent place among civilized nations and states in society.
I hope that we will really be able to use the potential that we have created for the sake of our national dreams and goals and to bring our next and no less important meaning to the modern and future civilization.
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.”
Referring to the vision of the economic revolution, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the government’s approach to this issue. “Our idea has not changed, it has remained the same. just as the political revolution was not possible and could not be carried out without the participation of every citizen, the economic revolution will not be carried out without the participation of our compatriots, citizens. How did we carry out the political revolution? we created an opportunity for every citizen to express his position and we guaranteed that the moment the RA citizens, the majority of the public, will register and show their position, will do their part to bring about changes, we guarantee that these changes will happen. The same applies to the economic revolution, where every person is required to be willing to contribute to the economic revolution.
The modern world, modern Armenia is even more a country of opportunities, and our greatest task is to realize these opportunities, to make them realistic. Who changes the world, who changes reality? that’s what people do. The 21st century is the time of people who believe in their own power. Now is the time for us and our people to believe in their own strength.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan answered the questions of representatives of the German-Armenian community and community structures, which were related to the negotiation process of the Artsakh conflict settlement, structural changes related to the Ministry of Diaspora, Armenia’s energy security, activities of the Armenian community in Germany, etc.
In particular, referring to the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Prime Minister Pashinyan said. “I have announced several times from the podium of the National Assembly and said: why is everyone asking us whether we are ready for compromises or not? And who said that we are the primary subject answering that question? Why doesn’t anyone ask Azerbaijan if they are ready to compromise or not? And therefore I have said several times publicly that we will not answer that question until Azerbaijan does not answer.”
In response to the question regarding the Ministry of Diaspora, Nikol Pashinyan informed. “The staff of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia will have a special assignment ambassador for the Diaspora, who will be the representative of the Prime Minister’s staff in relations with the Diaspora. Our understanding is as follows: the functions of the Ministry of Diaspora should be redistributed. The Ambassador with Special Assignments will have nothing to do except gather Diaspora-related issues, propose solutions, and implement those solutions through the Prime Minister. Therefore, we have thought of allocating the functions of the Ministry of Diaspora according to branch ministries, and having an ambassador with special assignments in relations with the Diaspora, who will work in the Prime Minister’s office under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister.
Our whole aim of optimizing the composition of the government is that every function should be handled by one body. For example, the Ministry of Diaspora always sent textbooks for Armenian educational centers abroad, but the training of Diaspora teachers was carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science. And we very often have situations when teachers are trained under the program of one ministry and receive textbooks from another ministry. It turns out that the use of that textbook and the training of teachers becomes ineffective. The Ministry of Education should be the one dealing with the issue of education. of these circumstances As a result, we have one policy of Armenian education in the Diaspora, and another in Armenia. The same is the case in the field of culture,” the Prime Minister said, emphasizing that the cornerstone of the policy should be bringing the identity of the Diaspora and the Armenians of Armenia closer together.