RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message on adopting the Declaration of Independence.

"Dear people, dear compatriots,

On August 23, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR adopted the Declaration on the Independence of Armenia, and today we celebrate the 33rd anniversary of that event.

The Declaration of Independence is a landmark document that laid the foundation for our statehood today. It was adopted at the peak of the Karabakh movement, which has been unfolding since 1988, in the conditions of the economic, political, and ideological crisis raging in the Soviet Union.

Before the 2020 war and especially after the war, I read and re-read the text of the Declaration many times. And my post-war readings have somewhat differed from pre-war readings.

The examination analysis of the text of the Declaration shows that we finally chose such a speech and content, which is based on the formula that made us a part of the Soviet Union. It is about an aggressive discourse with the regional environment that kept us in constant conflict with our neighbors.

With the Declaration of Independence, we announced the path to leave the Soviet Union, but we also closed all our ways to leave the Soviet Union; that is, with the Declaration of Independence adopted at the end of the 20th century, we adopted a formula that had already led us to the loss of independence at the beginning of the 20th century.

Now we do not know, we certainly cannot say what the other paths would have been like and what they would have led to, but it is our historical duty to analyze and understand the path already taken. Before assuming the position of the RA Prime Minister in 2018 and after that, I treated the Declaration of Independence of Armenia as a "biblical message," while the Declaration, however fundamental a document it is, needed and needs a deep examination because it is a political document, with all the consequences that follow.

And now, on the 33rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I want to emphasize that the peace agenda adopted by our government is the independence agenda because if we have peace, we will have independence. As long as we do not have peace, the ghost of the USSR will hover in our sky, in the atmosphere of our region.

I choose independence, sovereignty, and democracy. The Republic of Armenia's citizens choose freedom, liberty, and democracy.

Glory to the martyrs, and long live the Republic of Armenia."