On New Year’s Eve and on the occasion of Christmas, Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan together with Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Garegin II and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Artak Davtyan visited the border guard area and combat positions.

Nikol Pashinyan first got acquainted with the modernized command and staff equipment used in the system of the Armed Forces, including the equipment of domestic production. Then the Acting Prime Minister met with soldiers and commanders serving in combat positions, toured the combat strongholds and got familiarized with the soldiers’ service conditions and daily life.

Nikol Pashinyan encouraged a group of servicemen who had shown dedication and courage during service, handed gifts, and then had dinner with the servicemen at stronghold’s festive table.

The Head of Government congratulated all the servicemen of the Armenian Army on the upcoming holidays, addressed them good wishes and expressed gratitude for their dedicated service.

“It is a great honor for me to be with you today, because the value that our meeting today has is perhaps the most important for our state and people. I mean ensuring the security of our country and nation, and completing our mission which consists in the fulfillment of our people’s dreams.

I want to say something for each of us to understand: the task and the goal of the government of the Republic of Armenia is very clear, namely as a government, to preserve in the course of political activity the achievements of our soldiers-liberators and the Armed Forces, because we cannot regard these achievements as something trivial.

We regard these achievements as a historical opportunity for our people, which each of us has to defend, preserve and do our utmost in our position to stand proud before our martyrs and not be ashamed.

But we also need to understand that this is not an ordinary task, and the solution of this task requires special efforts and special responsibility from each of us. And our visit today shows that this kind of responsibility is present in our country, in our Armed Forces, and our task is to maximize the institutional basis of this high sense of responsibility.

Look, we are dealing with a fighting position, in the construction of which our compatriot-philanthropist contributed, the military leadership contributed, and the political leadership - our own, and we achieved an improvement in the situation thanks to cooperation.

We recently held a Security Council meeting that lasted a whole day. At the meeting, very important decisions were made, among which the key was that we should pay special attention to our servicemen’s social protection. We must pay special attention to the conditions of service of our military personnel, and we are talking not only about acting officers, but also about those who have retired.

Of course, the most important factor in the power of the army is its strong and strong rear, strong and strong society, which first of all believes in itself, trusts its Armed Forces, the government, and finally believes in God, which is equally important, because we cannot achieve great material security without faith.
I propose to drink for this integrity, for the fact that each of us carries his service at his post. In the end, this is a combat position, but it is very important that we all consider the issues in the vein, that the Prime Minister’s administration, the administration of the governor, the administration of the head of community are the same fighting positions; the same fighting position is the classroom where the teacher enters.

Our task is to ensure that each of us be prepared in our combat position for the same sacrifices as our soldier, who vigilantly serves in the heat, in the cold, in such living conditions. If each of us treats his service in this vein, I am convinced that thanks to this very circumstance hundreds of questions will be solved. I drink for all our combat positions, I drink for each of us to be in our fighting position so as to be worthy of our martyrs, our soldiers, our past and our future generations,” Nikol Pashinyan said.