RA PRESIDENT CONGRATULATED ARMENIAN PEOPLE ON INDEPENDENCE DAY
ArmInfo
2008-09-22 09:31:00
ArmInfo. RA President Serzh Sargsyan congratulated the Armenian people
on Independence Day.
As the presidential press-service told ArmInfo today, the
S. Sargsyan’s felicitation says: "I congratulate all of us on
the occasion of the 17th Anniversary of our independence. Today
is conceivably our main state holiday. Seventeen years ago our
collective will turned the dream of the generations of our nation
into the irreversible reality. Restoration of the Armenian statehood
was a historic imperative. Our people had never come to terms with
losing independence. We couldn’t come to terms because our historians
and writers said centuries ago that captivity and rule of invaders
were unlawful. Seventeen years ago, the citizens of the Republic of
Armenia, who gave their votes for independence, created the history
of contemporary and future Armenia. Not incidentally on this festive
day each of us poses same questions: what the independence has been
for me?; what have been Armenia’s achievements on this road?; what
should be our country’s course of development?; what state traditions
we will leave to our children born in freedom? I ask myself the same
question. Independence is the materialization of our dream, it is
our biography, with ups and downs, strives and fights, opportunity
and possibility to defend our national dignity, sacrifice, national
achievements obtained through that sacrifice, and the right for all
of us to share the pride of these achievements.
Independence is the right to shape our history by our will, and that
independence is indispensable and indisputable.
In seventeen years we have been able to protect our country, to
establish state structure, to lay foundations for growing economy,
and to give a new breath to our culture, education, and health care.
Today our country is moving forward, and if there is a progress it
means that there is a force behind that progress. That force is our
compatriots, their work, devotion and sacrifice. That force belongs to
each of us. All this makes September 21 a proud national holiday. This
pride is not haughtiness at all. Our pride is not inspired by our
glorious history only, or by the achievements and victories of our
predecessors, it is also inspired by our state traditions which are
being formed today. Since independence we have been creating new
traditions of the Armenian statehood.
Along with excellent traditions there are unfortunately some which
are unacceptable. Henceforth, we are a mature state and must be able
to uproot negative trends which hamper our progress, simultaneously
fostering the good, values for which the generations have fought,
values we cherish: freedom, democracy, and equally before the law. We
will stand by those values.
>From year to year for us freedom and independence acquire new meaning
and substance. We were able to overcome difficulties and didn’t
tumble. It became clear for us that only independence can give us
the ability to protect the interests of Armenia and the Armenian
people. We will continue to protect those values by all possible
means", RA president’s felicitation says.