“With solidarity and faith in our own strength, we will have a strong, developed state”: Gagik Tsarukyan

Gagik Tsarukyan, Leader of the PAP from the Kentron-Yerevan penitentiary, congratulated his compatriots on the 35th anniversary of Armenia’s independence.

“Dear compatriots,

For 35 years, our state and our people have gone through numerous trials, victories and defeats, economic collapse and recovery, injustice, domestic political tension, and other upheavals.

We have seen it all. We have built and strengthened our state. No one can deny this. Several generations have invested their experience, knowledge, capabilities, health, and lives so that our independent state could be established and developed. War, blockade, financial crises, despite all the difficulties, our people, thanks to their God-given qualities, have created, built, strengthened, and developed their state.

I am grateful that God gave me the opportunity to build and create good in my own country. Over these 35 years, I have received offers a hundred times to move to the most developed countries in the world, to live and build there. Offers have come from presidents, sheikhs, kings, and billionaires.

Every time, I answered — no. My Homeland is Armenia, I will live only there and build in my own country. Even if such an opportunity were to arise today, in this difficult moment, I would again say no, without a second’s hesitation.

What the next 35 years will be like depends largely on us, although, of course, much also depends on global processes. I want this new stage to be a time, for the current and future generations, when we stay in Armenia, preserve Armenia, and develop it.

If we can turn two ideas into a nationwide goal, if we can make them, today, tomorrow, and forever, an unchanging national trait, everything will be fine. These are the ideas of internal solidarity and faith in our own strength.

35 years ago, both we and the world were different. In 35 years, the difference from today will be even greater. But with internal solidarity and faith in our own strength, we will have a strong, developed state.

Happy 35th anniversary of our independence! Freedom to all political prisoners! Freedom to Armenians held in Baku’s prisons!” Tsarukyan noted.