“What happened in Shaki is not a village’s problem, it’s a problem for our entire state”: Gagik Tsarukyan

Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, from the Yerevan-Kentron penitentiary, commented on the incident in Shaki, expressing confidence that what happened in the village has troubled all decent people and left no one indifferent, regardless of whom they voted for. According to him, some issues have nothing to do with political preferences.

“The tension and instability that exist in the world and in our region prove that the threats facing our state can only be confronted through public solidarity. People may have different approaches, different points of view, and completely opposite views on important issues, but this must in no case become a cause of internal enmity and division. What happened in a small village gives serious cause for reflection. It is not a village’s problem, it is a problem for our entire state. There is no separate problem of Syunik, problem of Tavush, or problem of Yerevan. We are all in the same boat, and the safety of this boat is shared by all. We all understand that our region and Armenia are at a difficult stage, and in the near future we will have to make difficult decisions. The atmosphere inside the country will largely affect the quality of those decisions and their consequences.

Internal solidarity does not mean formally saying ‘dear friend’ to one another on every occasion. There must be different opinions and different views. Internal solidarity is a sense of being in one boat, an awareness of a single prospect, a single future, a single present, and shared risks. It is the national potential for finding solutions together. When will we finally fully realize this? And aren’t we already too late? That is the question,” Tsarukyan said in a statement.