Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech on the occasion of Republic Day at a ceremonial celebration at the Sardarapat Memorial.
“Today, we celebrate one of the most important events of our millennia-old history – the Day of the Establishment of the First Republic of Armenia. On May 28, 1918 after the heroic battles of Gharakilisa, Bash Aparan and Sardarapat, the first independent Republic of Armenia was declared, and this took place in a period of time when it seemed as if the Armenian people’s history has come to its final stage. But the opposite happened, the unexpected, and the Armenian people gained what it had lost seemingly irreversibly, it gained statehood. The first Republic of our history was built on the sacred blood that was shed here. This is the most important reason that every year on May 28th we are gathering here, we come here to say that we realize our historic responsibility before the heroes of Sardarapat, Bash Aparan and Gharakilisa, we come here to laud the heroes of the three battles, that their blood wasn’t shed in vain, that their generations are today proudly walking on the same land where they are resting, to which they have conveyed a new meaning and content with their unspeakable sacrifices and heroic deeds,” PM Pashinyan said.
