11:19, 5 July 2023
YEREVAN, JULY 5, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has released a statement on Constitution Day.
The statement reads:
“Dear people, dear compatriots,
On July 5, we celebrate the Constitution Day, which is of central importance in our state holidays.
September 21 expresses our will and determination to have an independent state and is essentially the birthday of our state, while July 5 is about what our state is, or should be, like.
The Constitution is about the general and strategic ideas about the state, about the functioning of the key mechanisms of the state, about the rights and responsibilities of a person and a citizen.
The Constitution is about the relations of all people, organizations, state structures and the activities of any individual, group, organization and structure in the country cannot contradict the Constitution. It shows the limit of permissible activities for the state and individual.
According to the current Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, state institutions have the right to do what they are allowed by the Constitution and laws, a person has the right to do what does not contradict the Constitution and laws, that is, everything that is not prohibited. In our country, the legal system is based on this principle, and let me say, today our reality is based on this principle. That reality is certainly not ideal. But today all political and economic rights are available to all people as befits a democratic country. This is an achievement that is no longer seen because it has become an ordinary thing and that it has become an ordinary thing is perhaps the greatest result.
Our biggest challenges in ensuring constitutional reality remain external security (peace and/or border situation) and an unquestionably credible judiciary – credible for everyone: the Government, the opposition and the public.
We have significant progress in the judicial system, which is expressed as follows. Today, no innocent person can be convicted, arrested or detained unnecessarily. Today, no one can consider himself above the law. All people are truly equal before the law.
Another thing is that the judicial system does not always respond to cases of offenses with due speed and efficiency. Many trials of public and state significance, sometimes for objective, sometimes subjective reasons, continue for years, causing justifiable public bewilderment. We are also witnessing confusing events in the field of civil and administrative legal relations.
But our determination to reform the judicial system has not wavered in any way. Reforms are proceeding slowly but steadily because that is the only guaranteed way to achieve results.
Our external security-related problems are known to each of you, and here we have serious challenges. At the same time, I am convinced that the peace agenda adopted by the Government has no alternative, because peace is the most credible factor of our sovereignty and security.
The realization of the peace agenda is not guaranteed for the simple reason that it does not depend only on us, but that we must make every legitimate effort to achieve peace is also obvious and unequivocal. In this sense, the creation of proper mechanisms to address the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the recognition of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, 29,800 square kilometers, are of key importance.
According to the Constitution of our country, Armenia is a social state. I consider it important to emphasize that tremendous changes have taken place in the social sphere in the Republic of Armenia. Since 2018, the minimum pension has more than doubled, the average pension has increased by 22 percent, and the basic pension has increased by 50 percent. Since 2018, 170,000 jobs have been created in Armenia, the salary fund has more than doubled, the average monthly salary has increased by about 57 percent, the minimum salary has increased by more than 36 percent, and the number of health services provided to citizens by state order has doubled.
The main goal of our policies in social and other spheres is the person’s well-being and happiness, which we should not lose as a guideline even in the most difficult moment.
Dear people,
Read the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. It is not a long but meaningful document, the reading of which is useful for everyone, because in many cases citizens have difficulties due to not knowing their rights.
I congratulate all of us on the occasion of the Constitution Day.”