Speech by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, in the National Assembly at the discussion of the main report on the implementation of the Government Program for 2024:

"Honorable Speaker of the National Assembly, Honorable Deputy Speakers,
Honorable Deputies of the National Assembly,
Honorable Members of the Government, Honorable Guests, Dear People,

We are discussing the report on the implementation of the Government Program for 2021–2026 for 2024; the first thing I must emphasize is that after the People's non-violent Velvet Revolution of 2018, only by 2024, the state budget revenues of the Republic of Armenia have more than doubled, increasing by 1.3 trillion drams. This is more than 3.3 billion dollars at today's exchange rate. In other words, after the Revolution, only in 2024, an additional 3.3 billion dollars entered the state budget of Armenia.

It should be emphasized that in the years preceding the People's non-violent Velvet Revolution, Armenia's state budget revenues also grew, and no one can deny this. But the 2018 revolution gave a new pace to budget growth, and excluding all averaged figures, thanks to the pace brought by the Revolution alone, the state budget of the Republic of Armenia received an additional income of more than 1 trillion 684 billion drams, or 4.2 billion dollars, from 2018 to 2024. I repeat, this is the amount that entered the state budget over the average budget growth figures of the previous period, particularly 2011–2017. In other words, during the seven post-revolutionary years, an additional 4.2 billion dollars entered the state budget of the Republic of Armenia.

Pay attention. This includes the COVID pandemic and the war year. Of course, this number does not include the state debt; the state debt is not counted as state budget revenue. I have also not included in this number the amounts transferred to the state budget by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund in 2020. In other words, we are talking about the budget's pure, revolutionary income.

I am also saying this in response to the criticism that our Government came to power through the Revolution and forgot its promise to return the looted. Did this $4.2 billion fall out of thin air, dear people, distinguished guests? Where did it come from?

To return the looted, we must first understand the looted's place and mechanism, which is, first of all, the shadow economy, artificial monopolies, and tax evasion. Those mentioned above, I repeat, additional budget income of $4.2 billion brought by the Revolution was formed in the fight against these phenomena.

I must admit that forgetting the revolutionary agenda of returning the looted and punishing the criminals is the most frequent accusation and criticism directed at us. But I want to say right away that I categorically reject that criticism for the following reasons:
The People's non-violent Velvet Revolution of 2018 did promise to return the looted and punish the criminals. But the Revolution and I also promised that after the victory of the Revolution, there would be no vendettas in Armenia and that Armenia would be a country of the rule of law and justice. So, how were we going to combine, including the contradictory agendas? The agendas do not contradict each other, and we have been and continue to be engaged in the implementation of these very agendas, namely, to exclude vendettas, return the looted, punish the criminals, and not turn the Republic of Armenia into an unspeakable black hole on the world map, but on the contrary, to make the rule of law irreversible and institutional.

This is the issue's legal, political, and moral side, but there is also a practical side. The problem is that, as I have said many times, the looted is not stored at a specific address, so you can load the trucks and return them. The looted is distributed in different places and various ways. Sometimes it is in Armenia, sometimes abroad, sometimes in the names of people known to us, sometimes in the names of people utterly unknown to us, in the names of pretenders, sometimes it is real estate, money, sometimes a work of art, a stock, sometimes it is stolen from an individual, sometimes from the Government, sometimes from a community, sometimes from a legal entity. Sometimes, it is alienated to a third party who is a bona fide acquirer and has nothing to do with plunder and corruption schemes, saw a product of interest to him on the market, and simply bought it legally.

So what have we done? Since 2019, we have begun to form a system aimed at untying the Gordian knot of plunder. We have done this work consistently and in principle. We have consistently continued this work in the conditions of the Covid pandemic, war, post-war crisis, regional escalations, resistance from political forces acting from the positions of systemic plunder, the collapse of the world order, the vital need to preserve Armenia's democratic image internationally while growing the economy at an unprecedented rate of 43.5%. Note that in 2018-2024, the economy of Armenia grew, and we are talking about real growth of 43.5 percent. As I mentioned above, throughout this, in parallel with the process, bringing an additional 4.2 billion dollars in revenue to the budget, ensuring the stability and independence of our country, increasing the sovereignty and independence of our country, ensuring and guaranteeing the minimum attributes of the country's sovereignty, for example, that citizens entering and leaving Armenia pass passport control only and only by service members of the Border Guard Forces of the Republic of Armenia, a luxury that our state could not afford during its 33 years of independence.

Parallel to all this, we have created a system for confiscating illegal property and a system for protecting community interests by the prosecutor's office. These systems are now an integral part of the legal order of the Republic of Armenia as an institution that takes the process of returning stolen property out of the realm of emotions and political expediency.

The ruling majority has not taken the confiscation of illegal property into its own hands but has created a system for the state and the people that will operate forever.

And isn't the looted property being confiscated during this time, they're not being confiscated? No, because more than $1.7 billion in illegally acquired property is currently under arrest and cannot be alienated. And the part that is not even under arrest at this time, according to the logic of the law of conservation of energy, if it's money, it should become property; if it's property, it should become money or a share, and that's precisely why the system of confiscation of illegal property was created, to locate, find, prove and return these properties to the state and the people, even if it's registered in the name of other, fictitious persons, even if various manipulative schemes are being used to hide it.

But wait a minute. Why are we so careful? What happened to the revolutionary Government? Have we lost our minds? Do we care about the rights of the looters, or are we afraid of them?

Not at all. We care about our state and our people because any act resembling a vendetta will cause such damage to our state's international image and reputation, economy, and investment environment that even tens of billions of dollars will not be able to repair that damage. Such action and logic will increase our existing vulnerabilities in external security so much that going down such a path would mean acting against the state's interests.

We are not going down that path and are fulfilling our promises made during the Revolution not to carry out vendettas, to establish the rule of law and justice, to make Armenia a country of law and legality, and to return what was stolen.

We defend the right of our people not to mix wet with dry, not to put an innocent person in prison, and to have justice and fairness in the country, not revenge or retaliation.

Also, because our people did not and do not love violence, our people did not and do not love permissiveness; our people did not and do not love injustice.

What can I say about justice and fairness? Have we reached the point we wanted to get, and what was that point? The point of our dream was and continues to be that justice in the Republic of Armenia means fairness, and we must admit that we have not reached this point.

Here, I foresee the already traditional criticism that we have missed the opportunity to vet judges. This criticism is inappropriate for two reasons: first, during the People's nonviolent Velvet Revolution, we pledged that all officials should have a chance to demonstrate themselves in New Armenia to invest their strength, and we have remained faithful to that promise. Approximately 60 percent of the judges currently in Armenia were appointed after 2018. We have created a new Anti-Corruption Court with three courts: first instance, appeal, and cassation.

But, as difficult as it may be to admit, public perceptions of the Anti-Corruption Court often do not differ from those of our other courts. This should remind us that the problems and their solutions are not as simple as they seem. According to my observations during my seven years as Prime Minister, these problems are primarily related to the legal mentality and education established in Armenia for many years.

According to that mentality, justice is not always justice. Justice can sometimes resemble the old folk proverb, "The owner took the land, the owner brought it back," and absurdly prolonged trials are perhaps the most striking example. According to this mentality, justice can only be accessible to a small elite group; nothing is strange about that.

This logic is expressed from time to time in the operational, investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial circles.

Is it shameful for a person who has held the position of Prime Minister for 7 years to make such a confession? I would be ashamed to make such a confession if I had not done my utmost to avoid such a situation, starting with the blockade of the courts, ending with the increase in salaries in the judicial system, which many consider illogical, continuing with all sorts of possible and impossible personnel changes and institutional reforms.

But does what I said mean a record that there has not been, is not, and will not be justice in Armenia? No, not at all. What I said means a reaffirmation of determination that we refuse and will refuse to accept the current situation and that the goal of having an independent and fair judicial system must be achieved unequivocally. Still, we must understand, diagnose, and solve the problems and be principled and consistent.

I am happy to note that many people in the judicial system—judges, prosecutors, investigators, and operatives—consider the above-mentioned agenda their own. I must say without a doubt that these people have the support of the people, their representative political majority, and the Government.

Support should be expressed by understanding institutional problems and seeking solutions to them. Sometimes, I think that the perceptions and reality of the gap between justice and fairness may also be related to the problem that we have significantly distanced our judicial system from the people with our structures, essentially cutting it off from the sovereign, that is, the organic connection between the people and the judicial system, and in the context of the adoption of the upcoming new Constitution, we should seriously discuss the possibility of introducing the institution of a jury.

I know and respect all the arguments that family ties are robust in a small country where everyone knows everyone. In the event of introducing the institute of jury trials, we may face the problem of the non-implementation of justice. But first of all, besides family ties, we are still facing that problem today. Moreover, the issues in justice and fairness and people's attitudes towards them sometimes create the impression that others have come from somewhere else and are committing injustices against us. This is not so; these people are people from our kindergarten, school, university, workplace, yard, and building who have lived next to us and live next to us. And if we trust them with justice and fairness on the one hand, as operatives, investigators, prosecutors, and judges, we can also trust them on the other hand, as jurors. And in this case, justice, whatever it may be, will not be cut off from the people.

On the contrary, justice will be as fair or as just as the people are fair. And the people are fairer than any prime minister, minister, deputy, judge, prosecutor, investigator, or police officer.

Honorable President of the National Assembly, Honorable Vice Presidents,
Honorable Deputies of the National Assembly,
Honorable Members of the Government,
Honorable Guests,
Dear People,

Returning to the system of confiscating illegally acquired property, I must state that it is no longer an irreversible reality with the systems of confiscating illegal property, protecting state and community interests and investigating criminal cases. The purpose of the #hatikarhatik caption on my Facebook page is to demonstrate this process and prove that the Government's political will in this process has not only not diminished but has yielded concrete results. Property worth billions of drams has already been returned through the above-mentioned legal mechanisms. I have started and will continue to list the returned properties available to everyone. But I consider it essential to emphasize that today, through criminal proceedings that have already been completed, criminal cases concluded in courts, confiscation of property of illegal origin, claims and settlements for the protection of state and community interests, as well as through prosecutorial measures applied by the Military Prosecutor's Office, property and funds worth about 210 billion drams have been returned to the Republic of Armenia. In other words, these 530 million dollars of property and funds have already been returned to the Republic of Armenia. I want to emphasize again that the risks of embezzlement by those who own illegal property are being maximally managed because property worth about 1.7 billion dollars is currently under arrest or seizure. Those mentioned above returned and seized properties belonging to former presidents, ministers, community leaders, high-ranking civil and military officials, and/or their family members, and/or their back to related persons. These properties are being returned #piece by piece and will be returned to the Republic of Armenia and its people. Currently, cases are being heard in the courts regarding illegally acquired properties worth more than 600 billion drams, or 1.5 billion dollars.

However, the Golden Palace Tsaghkadzor hotel, the AOX building in the center of Yerevan, the Noratus radio center, and land plots worth several billion drams in Yerevan and the regions have already been returned.

However, this topic should also be considered from another perspective. As promised, the Republic of Armenia has a 21.8 percent stake in the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine. This stake itself has a market value of several hundred million dollars. But this is not the whole story. From 2018 to 2024, ZCMK more than doubled its taxes compared to the previous seven-year period, 2011-2017. Does the return of the loot happen in a staggered manner?

But this is not all. In 2024, ZCMK paid the state budget a 33 billion 249 million drams dividend. In other words, as a result of our patient, consistent actions around ZCMK alone, which, by the way, did not happen all at once but lasted 3 years, we have returned $1 billion in money and property to the Republic of Armenia about ZCMK alone.

Not directly but indirectly, this topic is also related to the successful resolution of the "Amulsar" problem, the Republic of Armenia's acquisition of a 12.5 percent stake, the recording of the obligation to pay an additional $7 million annually to the affected communities, the sale of the "VivaCell" company, and the Government's acquisition of a 20 percent stake. "Viva Armenia" company also paid a 2 billion dram stake to the state budget in 2025, in addition to the taxes paid.

Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

The Government's will to return what has been looted, stolen, illegally, or unfairly alienated has not only not diminished, but also the ready-made institutions, formulas, and systems are in place, demonstrable and visible. But it is important to emphasize that during this period, not only was Armenia's statehood and international reputation not damaged, which was a considerable risk during this entire process, but everything was done legally and transparently. At the same time, we have remained 100 percent faithful to our promises made during the people's non-violent velvet revolution of 2018, not staging scenes of revenge and vendetta, but on the contrary, remaining loyal to the institutional path of statehood, which is perhaps the most complex, most challenging, but the only true path. We will continue to follow that path.

Summing up my remarks on this topic, I would like to emphasize it is very important that the mention of the names of the above-mentioned companies in that context refers to the processes of the previous period and as a result of the well-known processes I mentioned, I consider these companies to be reliable and trustworthy partners of the Government, and I would like to thank our co-owners of these companies, namely the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, Amulsar, and Viva Armenia, for their practical cooperation, which we will undoubtedly continue most honestly.

Dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

After hearing all this, you must understandably ask: What have they done, and what have the above-mentioned additional billions in dollars and even more trillions in drams been used for? This is a fundamental question, and I will now formulate the answer to that question point by point, with the most important emphases.

Since 2018, we have allocated 233 billion 800 million drams to increase pensions. Since 2018, we have more than doubled the minimum pension and decided to increase pensions five times. The average retirement has increased by 22.3 percent. This indicator, of course, is not enough. Still, it should be taken into account that the amount mentioned above has been distributed among the constantly increasing number of pensioners, and from 2018 to this moment, the number of our beloved pensioners has increased by 125 thousand. I emphasize this to show that we have increased the pension fund by a considerable amount. Still, the number of pensioners among whom the mentioned amount has been distributed has also increased considerably, which at the individual level is sometimes not as tangible as at the aggregate fund level.

This is also why we have introduced a system of refunds for pensioners' non-cash transactions. Through this system, about 290,000 pensioners have received about 19.9 billion drams back, of which 18 billion drams came from the state budget of the Republic of Armenia.

Since 2018, an additional 61 billion drams have been allocated to the childcare benefit program for children under 2 years of age. Initially, only working mothers were beneficiaries of the childcare program for children under 2 years of age. After 2018, we first made young mothers living in rural areas who were not working beneficiaries of the program. There are also young mothers residing in cities who are not working, that is, practically everyone. As a result, compared to 2018, the number of young mothers receiving benefits increased 4.6 times, from 12,733 to 58,796, an increase of 46,063 people, and the average benefit amount more than doubled.

Next, 31.4 billion drams were provided to the third and each subsequent child born. This program did not exist before and began operating on January 1, 2022. As of December 31, 2024, 33,825 children received 50,000 drams of monthly support from the state.

Within the framework of the state support program for the energy-efficient renovation of residential buildings and apartment buildings, we provided 5.4 billion drams to 25,000 citizens of the Republic of Armenia. We helped them make their apartments and houses energy-efficient and adapt them for possible business activities. The program's implementation method is the subsidization of loan interest rates.

We have allocated 99 billion drams to implement the 300 Schools program to create, renovate, or upgrade school infrastructure for 63,400 children.

Thirty-seven billion drams were allocated to increase teacher salaries through various programs. Teachers' salaries increased nationwide in 2019, and the voluntary certification program was enacted. The program increased teachers' salaries in vocational training and schools with up to 100 children. As a result, since 2018, the teacher salary fund has risen by 37 billion drams, which means an increase of 67 percent. Today, 597,500 teachers in the Republic of Armenia receive a salary of 597,500 drams.

An additional 74.3 billion drams were allocated to funding science. At the same time, the salaries of scientific workers increased from 105 to 300 percent. In 2018–2024, compared to the previous seven years, science funding in the Republic of Armenia more than doubled.

We have allocated an additional 31 billion drams to increase the salaries of army personnel, and today, 582 thousand ordinary soldiers in Armenia receive a salary of 582 thousand drams.

In 2018–2024, compared to the previous 7 years, an additional 242 billion drams were allocated for road construction, and compared to the last 7 years, 2 thousand kilometers of additional roads were built, renovated, and repaired. This is an increase compared to 2011-2017; 576 percent more roads were repaired, renovated, and constructed than in that period. Moreover, these figures for neither financing nor road construction include loan funds, and road construction works carried out with their expenditure. Road construction works carried out with subsidies are also not included. That is, 2,000 kilometers of additional road without loans and subsidies compared to 2011-2017.

Since 2018, more than 100 billion drams have been spent from the state budget as support, in working language, through leasing, intensive gardening and livestock support, and agricultural product procurement support programs. The majority of these programs did not previously exist in Armenia.

Since 2018, 271 billion drams have been returned to citizens under the income tax refund program, including the income tax refund program for mortgage loans. Thanks to this program, about 41 thousand families in Armenia have been able to purchase apartments in newly built buildings.

The state housing support program for families with children was introduced on July 1, 2020, and by December 31, 2024, 12,151 young families had received additional support of 8.6 billion drams.

One hundred fourteen billion drams have been invested in implementing subsidy programs in the regions. Note that these are only the funds allocated from the state budget. Since 2018, the total package of subsidies has amounted to 225 billion drams. There has never been such an investment in any of the regions of Armenia in any seven years. This program also includes the 500 kindergarten program, for which 23 billion drams have been allocated from the state budget to build, reconstruct, and renovate kindergartens for about 33 thousand children. At the same time, subsidies provided to communities in 2018–2024 increased by 159 billion drams or 57 percent compared to the previous 7-year period.

This list can be continued for a long time, but what has been said is enough to show that not only has the loot been returned and distributed to the people, but a system has been created to return the loot and return it to the people, and yes, and yes, approximately two trillion drams have already been returned and distributed to the people and or invested in the strategic development of Armenia.

Dear guests, dear people,

I want to emphasize in particular that the above budget calculations do not in any way reflect the real estate tax calculations. I underline this because some are trying to exploit the real estate tax reform schedule we have adopted to fill the state budget. But if this accusation is wrong, it is only partially because taxes are a way to fill the budget, but real estate taxes are a way to fill the community budget, not the state budget. I repeat, not a single penny from real estate taxes goes to the state budget, but exclusively to community budgets. I must proudly emphasize that in 2024, compared to 2017, the budgets of the Republic of Armenia's communities tripled, not only at the expense of real estate taxes.

For example, community budgets increased by about 276 percent, or 18 billion drams, on the Local Payments line and by about 344 percent, or 8 billion 386 million drams, on the Other Revenues line. A significant increase in community budgets was recorded on all lines.

And what happened to the real estate tax? Yes, real estate tax revenues have more than doubled, entering community budgets. Returning to the much-discussed and criticized new real estate tax rates, I must emphasize that the implemented changes have mainly burdened properties worth 100 million drams and more, that is, properties with a price significantly higher than the average.

Please pay special attention to what I will say now: properties worth 100 million drams and more are 0.62 percent of the total properties in our country. Can you imagine that this is 0.62 percent of the properties in our country, the value of which is 100 million drams and more? However, due to our implemented reforms, 0.62 percent pays 42.7 percent of the real estate tax. Now, where is the fuss coming from? Pay attention: 0.62 percent of the real estate in the republic pays 42.7 percent of the real estate tax.

It is said that the reforms we have implemented in the real estate tax system also fit into the logic of returning the looted, at least significantly, because the vast majority of taxes are paid by the rich, including those who became rich illegally.

Let's not forget what happened when, in 2019, we decided to level the three-pronged income tax of 23, 28, and 36 percent and establish a universal 20 percent income tax.

At that time, many oppositionists sitting in the NA hall today accused us of violating the principle of social justice and supporting the rich, to which we responded by saying that the best measure of wealth is not salary but real estate, and with a real estate tax we will be able to resolve the problem posed, which, in fact, according to the statistics I mentioned, showed that that reform hit the mark precisely 10.

I attach great importance to our dear compatriots distinguishing this nuance. Real estate taxes are included in community budgets, which should be spent exclusively on improving the citizens' yards, streets, and immediate environment. In other words, the real estate tax is especially the case when I say that citizens pay this tax themselves, transferring it from their right pocket to their left pocket, and decisions on spending these funds are made by the council of elders elected by them, which is the institution and body closest to the citizen.

But this is not all: the participatory budgeting program of communities has been launched and will be expanded every year; when citizens can directly decide which projects are a priority for the community, citizens can put forward their ideas for making their lives better in their community and decide on financing and implementing this program. This participatory budgeting system is still financed from the state budget. Instead of the 500 million planned for four communities in 2024, one billion drams has been allocated from the 2025 state budget for 21 communities. All this is the practical expression of the fact that by making payments to the state and community budgets, the citizen is again paying himself, exclusively to himself, and it is with this perception that the border between the state and statelessness is crossed. In other words, the border between the state and statelessness is crossed by the citizen's attitude toward the tax paid to the community or the state budget. This attitude shows what state thinking is and what anti-state thinking is.

In general, in Armenia, and not only now, there is an accusation against the Government, which I alluded to a little earlier, which is absurd in its entirety. To accuse the Government of filling state or community budgets means not correctly imagining the source and formula of the well-being of each citizen. To blame the Government for making efforts to fill the budget means to accuse the Government of building well-being for the citizens.

Again, I have said, and I say, that no family in the Republic of Armenia spends more on its well-being, and they cannot do so other than local and community budgets. And the size and scope of state and community budgets express the level of well-being of each citizen in the true sense of the word, of each citizen. The budget determines it: tell me how much your country's budget is, and I will tell you how you live; tell me how much your community budget is, and I will tell you how you live.

The criterion for a citizen's good or bad life is how much he earns and how much he pays taxes to the state and community budget. Because it is impossible to live well in settlements with dirt roads, dark and gloomy streets devoid of trees and flowers, parks and groves, drinking and irrigation water systems, and without sewage. There are thousands of such settlements and districts in Yerevan, Gyumri Vanadzor, and other large cities with such a situation.

It doesn't matter how many times a week you eat meat; if you live in such an untidy environment, then you are poor. If you want to eat six times a day, you are poor, and well-being is as far from you as Pluto is from the sun.

One can not eat meat once a week and be much more prosperous, having a good school and kindergarten in the community and district, a well-maintained street and park, a well-maintained and well-lit street, etc., and so on.

Of course, a person cannot live without bread, and no one can underestimate its importance. And are there families in Armenia who do not have bread right now? Unfortunately, there are. What should we do then? Can we be indifferent to these people? We cannot. Let's go and give them bread.

Today, we gave the bread; let's go tomorrow and see what has changed in their lives. We will know that they do not have that bread either. We cannot be indifferent tomorrow either; let's give them bread again. Let's go on the third day and see what has changed in their lives. We will know that they do not have bread again, and on the third day, we cannot be indifferent to their situation either. Let's also give them bread on the third day; let's see what their condition is like on the fourth day. We'll see if they don't have bread on the fourth day. The same thing will happen on the fifth day, the sixth day, the first month, the sixth month, the first year, the sixth year, and the tenth year. This is also evident from official statistics.

More than 10 thousand families have been receiving poverty benefits for 10 or more years in Armenia. Excellent, the next question is, who pays for that bread? Here, we don't want to pay taxes; we don't want to pay taxes, we don't want to; who pays for that bread? Very good, we give it from one place, for ten years we have been giving them good or lousy bread and what has changed in these people's lives? Just one thing: we have humiliated these people for only 10 years, made them dependent, made poverty a state-level mindset, lifestyle, and psychology for them, and condemned their children to the fate of being poor.

And I am proud that this Government and the political majority have shown political will by introducing a new system for assessing insecurity and overcoming poverty when we give people bread. Still, only as long as we are convinced that they make sufficient effort and we make adequate effort so that they have the opportunity, ability, knowledge, education, and skills to earn their bread. And when they make that effort through education and work, they do not need the bread we give them but expect from us the opportunity to lead a prosperous life with at least a little bread they have earned in an environment - a well-maintained residence, street, yard. This is our policy and our strategy. And this is the right strategy and a dignified strategy.

Honorable Chairman of the National Assembly, Honorable Vice-Chairmen,
Honorable Deputies of the National Assembly,
Honorable Members of the Government,
Dear Guests,
Dear People,

I have repeatedly noted, and now I want to reaffirm, that security is one of the key factors of human well-being, at least equal to bread. In strategic terms, the only reliable guarantee of ensuring security is peace. I am pleased to record that, as you know, the draft Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been agreed upon. Negotiations on the Agreement on the draft have been completed. This means that we have entered the stage of discussions on the signing of the contract, and I have declared that I am ready to put my signature on behalf of the people of Armenia to the Agreement.

Azerbaijan officially links the signing of the Agreement with two issues. The first of them is the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group structures. I have repeatedly said this is an understandable agenda for the Republic of Armenia. If we close the page on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and we do, what is the point of having a structure dealing with the conflict? But the OSCE Minsk Group, at least de facto, has a broader context, and we want to be sure that Azerbaijan does not view the dissolution of the Minsk Group as a step towards closing the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict on the territory of Azerbaijan and transferring it to the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. To address this concern, we propose that Azerbaijan sign the Peace Agreement and make a joint application to the OSCE on the dissolution of the Minsk Group structures simultaneously. In other words, the Peace Agreement and the joint application on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group structures should be put on the table, and both the first and the second should be signed at the same place and simultaneously. This, by the way, is an official proposal.

The next issue Azerbaijan raises in signing the Peace Agreement is its claim that the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Insisting on this issue, we must first proceed from the assumption that Azerbaijan raises this issue as a sincere concern, not as an excuse not to sign the Peace Agreement, as several experts think.

We must honestly understand the essence of the issue and its political and legal content. Therefore, we must state that only the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia can give an official interpretation of the Constitution's text; that is, the Constitutional Court is the body that can officially say what the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia contains and does not contain.

In September 2024, our Constitutional Court examined the regulations on the joint activities of the Commission on the Demarcation of the State Border and Border Security between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Commission on the Demarcation of the State Border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia and recorded that the regulations, where the Alma-Ata Declaration is recorded as the basic principle of the demarcation of the border between the two countries, comply with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. This means that our Constitutional Court has recorded that the principle of the Alma-Ata Declaration, according to which the territory of independent Armenia is identical to the territory of Soviet Armenia, and the territory of independent Azerbaijan is similar to the territory of Soviet Azerbaijan, and based on which the parties agreed to regulate relations in Prague on October 6, 2022, fully complies with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, the body authorized to interpret the Constitution of Armenia has determined by an irrevocable decision that no territorial claims are directed at Azerbaijan or any other country in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. This decision is of the highest legal force and is not subject to reversal.

On the other hand, we see territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia in the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan. But we do not raise this issue because the draft agreement on the establishment of peace and interstate relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan contains the necessary formulations that resolve the issue, recording that the parties have no territorial claims to each other and undertake not to make such claims in the future, with the understanding that the two countries recognize each other's territorial integrity through the territory of the Soviet Republics, as stated in the Alma-Ata Declaration.

So, if we accept that Azerbaijan's position regarding our Constitution is not a pretext but a sincere concern, the most effective way to dispel that concern is not to sign the Agreement but to sign it. Why? According to our legislation, the Government must send the text of the Peace Agreement to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia to check its compliance with our Constitution.

Although experts do not consider such a possibility to be high after the Constitutional Court's decision in 2025, if the Constitutional Court decides that the text of the Peace Agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan does not comply with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, then the Republic of Armenia will have a specific situation and the need to choose between peace and conflict.

But if the Constitutional Court of Armenia decides that the text of the Peace Agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan complies with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, in that case, there will be no obstacle to ratifying the Agreement in the National Assembly; after ratification in the Parliament, Article 5, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia will come into effect, which states: "In case of a conflict between the norms of international treaties and laws ratified by the Republic of Armenia, the norms of international treaties shall apply."

After ratification, the Peace Agreement will acquire the highest legal force in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Therefore, with its current position on the Peace Agreement, Azerbaijan is hindering the resolution of the issues it has raised itself. This gives many experts reason to say that Azerbaijan is simply delaying signing the Peace Agreement under fabricated pretexts.

To avoid being misunderstood, I want to emphasize again that, in any interpretation, the way to address the issues raised by Azerbaijan is not to sign the Peace Agreement but to do so. Since we have similar questions, the same applies to the Republic of Armenia.

Dear guests, dear people,

Despite all the difficulties and complications, the Government and I will not deviate from the Peace Agenda. It is obvious that some forces, both in Armenia and outside Armenia, are carrying out daily propaganda for war and are calling for specific actions aimed at bringing it to life. Among these actions, Azerbaijan's war rhetoric stands out, along with the actions that are expressed in false accusations of ceasefire violations against Armenia and frequent, if not daily, ceasefire violations by the Azerbaijani armed forces. These violations are mainly untargeted, although two specific cases targeting the village of Khnatsakh in the Syunik region have been recorded over the past month.

However, untargeted shots have been heard in several settlements of our republic during this time. The mentioned shootings are either a consequence of indiscipline in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan or are aimed at exerting psychological pressure on the population of the mentioned settlements. The Republic of Armenia calls on the Republic of Azerbaijan to investigate the mentioned cases and take measures to stop them.

I reaffirm that I have clearly instructed the Armenian army not to violate the ceasefire regime, and the Republic of Armenia is ready to investigate information about our army's violation of the ceasefire regime. At the same time, I once again propose to Azerbaijan to create a joint mechanism for investigating border incidents, including ceasefire violations, that will operate daily.

In this context, I consider it necessary to address all those statements that predict a new escalation and even a new war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

There is no justification for war. Armenia and Azerbaijan have recognized each other's territorial integrity, sovereignty, inviolability of internationally recognized borders, and the inadmissibility of the use of force and the threat of force.

Based on these realities, I call on all forces and individuals operating in Armenia and Azerbaijan to be highly responsible, not to make statements that directly or indirectly contradict the logic above, and not to question this logic. It has no prospects.

The peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan deserve peace and peaceful coexistence. There will be no war; there will be peace," he said.