Honorable President of the National Assembly, Honorable Vice-Presidents,
Honorable MPs,
Honorable Cabinet members, honorable guests, dear people,

We are discussing the report on the implementation of the Government Program for 2021–2026 for 2024 and the first thing I must emphasize is that after the People’s, non-violent, velvet revolution of 2018, only by the results of 2024, the state budget revenues of the Republic of Armenia have more than doubled, increasing by 1.3 trillion AMD. This is more than 3.3 billion USD 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 AMD, or $4.2 billion, from 2018 to 2024. I repeat, this is the amount that entered the state budget in excess of the averaged budget growth figures of the previous period, in particular, 2011–2017. In other words, during the 7 post-revolutionary years, an additional $4.2 billion entered the state budget of the Republic of Armenia.

And this, pay attention, includes the Covid pandemic and the war year, and this number, of course, does not include the state debt, the state debt is not counted as state budget income. I also did not include 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 also say this in response to the criticism that our Government came to power through the Revolution and forgot its promise to return what had been looted. Did this $4.2 billion fall out of thin air, dear people, esteemed guests? Where did this $4.2 billion come from?

In order to return the looted, we must first understand the place of the looted and the mechanism of the looting, which is primarily the shadow economy, artificial monopolies, and tax evasion. And the above-mentioned additional, I repeat, additional, $4.2 billion budget revenue brought by the Revolution was formed as a result of the fight against these phenomena.

I must admit that forgetting the revolutionary agenda of returning the loot and punishing criminals is the most frequently heard accusation and criticism against 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 personally also promised that after the victory of the Revolution, there would be no vendettas in Armenia, that Armenia would be a country of the rule of law and justice. So, how were we going to combine these contradictory agendas? In fact, the agendas do not contradict each other, and we have been and continue to be engaged in implementing these very agendas: namely, to exclude vendettas, return the loot, punish the criminals, and not turn the Republic of Armenia into an unspeakable black hole of lawlessness on the world map, but on the contrary, to make the rule of law irreversible and institutional.

This is the legal, political and moral side of the issue, but there is also the practical side. The problem is that, as I have said many times, the what has been looted is not stored at a specific address, so that you can go and load the trucks and return them. The looted goods are distributed in different places, in different ways. Sometimes it is in Armenia, sometimes abroad, sometimes in the names of people known to us, sometimes in the names of people completely unknown to us, sometimes it is real estate, sometimes money, sometimes a piece of art, sometimes shares of companies, sometimes it is stolen from an individual, sometimes from the Government, sometimes from the 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 looting and corruption schemes, he just saw a product he was interested in on the market and simply bought it legally.

What have we done, then? Since 2019, we have begun to form a system aimed at untying the Gordian Knot of plunder. We have done this work consistently and decisively. We have consistently continued this work in the face 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, and for 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, Armenia's economy grew, and we are talking about real growth, by 43.5%. As I mentioned above, in parallel with this entire process, bringing an additional $4.2 billion 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 undergo passport control only and only by servicemen of the Border Guard Forces of the Republic of Armenia, a luxury that our state had not afforded during its 33 years of independence.

And in parallel with all this, we have created a system for confiscating illegally acquired property, a system for protecting community interests by the prosecutor's office, these systems are already an integral part of the legal order of the Republic of Armenia, as an institution that takes the process of returning looted property out of the realm of emotions and political expediency.

It's not so that the ruling majority has taken the system for confiscating 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 scattered about during this time? No, because more than $1.7 billion in apparently illegally acquired property is currently under arrest and it cannot be alienated. And the part that is not even under arrest at the moment, according to the logic of the law of conservation of energy, if it is money, it must become property, if it is property, it must become money or a share, and that is precisely why the system of confiscation of illegally acquired property was created, to locate, find, prove and return these properties to the state and the people, even if it is registered in the name of other, fictitious persons, even if various manipulative schemes are being implemented 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 of lawlessness, reminiscent of 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 an action and logic will increase our already 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 that path and are fulfilling our promises made during the Revolution to not carry out vendettas, to establish rule of law and justice, to make Armenia a country of law and legality, and to return the loot.

We defend the right of our people, so that no innocent person ends up in prison, so that there is justice and fairness in the country and not revenge or vendetta.

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

And what can I say about justice and fairness, have we reached the point here that we wanted to reach and what was that point? And 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 anticipate the already traditional criticism that we have missed the opportunity to vet judges. This criticism is actually inappropriate for two reasons: first, during the People’s, non-violent, velvet revolution, we pledged that all officials should have a chance to demonstrate themselves and contribute their strength to the New Armenia, and we have faithfully kept that promise. Besides, approximately 60 percent of the judges currently serving in Armenia were appointed after 2018. Let’s also not forget that we have literally created a new Anti-Corruption Court from scratch, with three courts: first instance, appeals, and cassation courts.

But, as difficult as it may be to admit, public perceptions of the Anti-Corruption Court often do not differ from the perceptions of our other courts. This should remind us that the problems and their solutions are not as simple as they may seem, and according to my observations over the past 7 years as Prime Minister, these problems are primarily related to the legal mentality and education that has been established in Armenia for many years.

And according to that mentality, justice is not always fairness, according to that mentality, the rich and the poor are not equal befor the law, and absurdly prolonged trials are perhaps the most striking example of this. According to that mentality, justice can only be accessible to a small elite group and there is nothing strange in 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? In fact, 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, and continuing with all sorts of possible and impossible personnel changes and institutional reforms.

But does what I said mean that we record that there has not been, there is not and will not be justice in Armenia? No, not at all. What I said means to reaffirm our determination that we refuse and will refuse to accept the current situation, that the goal of having an independent and fair judicial system must be achieved unequivocally, but for this we must first understand, diagnose and solve the problems and be firm and consistent on this path.

And I am happy to record that there are many people in the judicial system - judges, prosecutors, investigators, operatives, who consider the above-mentioned agenda their personal one, and I must say without a doubt that these individuals have the support of the people, the political majority and the Government.

And that support must be expressed by understanding the institutional problems and seeking solutions to them. Sometimes I think that the perceptions and reality of the gap between fairness and justice may also be related to the problem that with our structures, we have significantly distanced our judicial system from the people, 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 upcoming adoption of the new Constitution, we should seriously discuss the possibility of introducing the institution of juror.

I know and respect all the arguments that in a small country where everyone knows everyone, family ties are very strong, and in the event of introducing the institute of jury trials, we may face the problem of non-implementation of justice. But first of all, we are still facing that problem today, and besides, as much as family ties would work in the case of jurors, they work today in the case of an operative, investigator, prosecutor, and judge. So why don't we abandon those institutions, saying that as long as the ties between relatives, acquaintances, and friends are strong in Armenia, let's not have judges, let's not have prosecutors, let's not have investigators, let's not have operatives?

Moreover, the problems in the sphere of justice and fairness and people's attitude towards them sometimes create the impression that other people 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, building, who have lived next to us and live next to us. And if we trust them with justice and fairness on 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 fair, more than any prime minister, any minister, any deputy, judge, prosecutor, investigator, or police officer.

Honorable President of the National Assembly, Honorable Vice-Presidents,
Honorable MPs,
Honorable Cabinet members,
Honorable guests,
Dear people,

Returning to the system of confiscation of illegally acquired property, I must state that it is an irreversible reality with the systems of confiscation of illegally acquired property, protection of state and community interests, and investigation of criminal cases. The purpose of the #onebyone caption on my Facebook page is to demonstrate this very process, to demonstrate that the political will of the Government in this process has not only not diminished, but has also 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, which is available to everyone. But I consider it important to emphasize that today, through criminal proceedings that have already been completed, criminal cases completed in courts, confiscation of property of illegal origin, claims and settlements for the protection of state and community interests, as well as through prosecutorial intervention 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 in assets and funds have already been returned to the Republic of Armenia. I would like to emphasize once again that the risks of scattering about the loot by those who own the illegal assets are being maximally managed, because about $1.7 billion in assets are currently under arrest or seizure. The above-mentioned returned and seized assets belong to former presidents, ministers, community leaders, high-ranking civil and military officials and/or their family members and/or persons affiliated with them. These assets are being returned and will be returned piece by piece to the Republic of Armenia and its people. At the moment, cases involving more than 600 billion drams, or $1.5 billion in illegally acquired assets, are being examined in the courts.

But among the properties that have already been returned are the Golden Palace Tsaghkadzor hotel, the AOKS building in the very center of Yerevan, the Noratus radio center, and land plots worth several billion drams in Yerevan and the regions.

However, this topic should also be looked at from another perspective. The Republic of Armenia has a 21.8 percent stake in the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine, as I promised. This stake itself has a market value of several hundred million dollars. But this is not the whole story. Between 2018 and 2024, ZCMC more than doubled its taxes compared to the previous seven-year period, that is, 2011–2017. Isn't this return of the loot?

But this is not all; In 2024, ZCMC paid a dividend of 33 billion 249 million drams to the state budget. In other words, as a result of our patient, consistent actions around ZCMC 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.

Not directly, but indirectly this topic is also related to the successful resolution of the “Amulsar” problem and the Republic of Armenia’s acquisition of a 12.5 percent stake, and the recording of the obligation to pay an additional $7 million annually to the affected communities, the sale of “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 has Armenia's statehood and international reputation not been damaged, which was a very big risk during this entire process, but everything has also been done completely legally and without shocks. 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 vendettas, but on the contrary, remaining faithful to the institutional path of state formation, which is perhaps the most complex, most difficult, but the only true path, and we will continue to follow that path.

Summing up my remarks on this topic, I would like to emphasize that it is very important that mentioning 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 these companies, namely the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, Amulsar, and Viva Armenia Company, our co-owners, for their effective cooperation, which we will certainly continue in the most honest manner.

Dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

After hearing all this, understandably a question will arise: well, what have they done, what have the above-mentioned additional billions in dollars and even more trillions in drams been used for? It is a very important 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, we have made a decision to increase pensions five times. The average pension has increased by 22.3 percent. This indicator, of course, is not enough, but it should be taken into account that the above-mentioned amount 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 huge amount, but the number of pensioners among whom the mentioned amount has been distributed has also increased by a huge amount, which at the individual level is sometimes not as tangible as at the level of the aggregate fund.

This is also the reason why we have introduced a refund system for non-cash transactions by pensioners, through which about 290 thousand pensioners have received a refund of about 19.9 billion drams, of which 18 billion drams from the state budget of the Republic of Armenia.

Since 2018, an additional 61 billion drams have been allocated to the child care allowance program for children under 2 years of age. Initially, only working mothers were beneficiaries of the child care allowance program for children under 2 years of age. After 2018, we first made young mothers living in rural areas but not working beneficiaries of the program, and then also young mothers living in cities and not working, that is, practically everyone. As a result, compared to 2018, the number of young mothers receiving this allowance increased 4.6 times, from 12 thousand 733 to 58 thousand 796, that is, an increase of 46 thousand 63 people, and the average amount of the allowance more than doubled.

Next, 31.4 billion drams were allocated to the 3rd and each subsequent child born. This program did not exist before and began operating on January 1, 2022, and as of December 31, 2024, 33,825 children receive monthly support of 50,000 drams from the state.

We have provided 5.4 billion drams to 25,000 citizens of the Republic of Armenia within the framework of the state support program for the energy-efficient renovation of residential buildings and apartment buildings, helping them to make their apartments and houses energy-efficient and adapt them for possible business activities. The method of implementation of the program is the subsidy of loan interest.

We have allocated 99 billion drams for the implementation of the 300 Schools program, which will create, renovate or upgrade school infrastructure for 63,400 schoolchildren.

37 billion drams were allocated to increase teacher salaries through various programs. Teachers' salaries were increased nationwide in 2019, then the voluntary certification program came into effect, then the program for increasing teachers' salaries in the areas of vocational training and schools with up to 100 students. As a result, since 2018, the teacher salary fund has increased by a total of 37 billion drams, which means an increase in the teacher salary fund by 67 percent, and today there a teacher in the Republic of Armenia receiving a salary of 597,500 drams.

An additional 74.3 billion drams was allocated to funding science. At the same time, the salaries of scientific workers were increased by 105-300 percent. In 2018–2024, compared to the previous 7 years, science funding in the Republic of Armenia has more than doubled.

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

In 2018-2024, an additional 242 billion drams were allocated for road construction compared to the previous 7 years, and 2 thousand kilometers of additional roads were built, renovated and repaired compared to the previous 7 years. This is an increase over 2011-2017, that is, 576 percent more roads were repaired, renovated and built compared to that previous 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, without loans and without subsidies, 2,000 kilometers of additional road compared to 2011-2017.

Since 2018, more than 100 billion drams have been spent from the state budget as support for 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, which also includes the income tax refund program in case of mortgage loans, thanks to which about 41 thousand families in Armenia have received the opportunity to purchase apartments in newly built buildings.

Since July 1, 2020, the state support program for providing housing to families with children has been introduced, and by December 31, 2024, 12 thousand 151 young families have received additional support of 8.6 billion drams.

114 billion drams have been invested to implement subsidy programs in the regions. Please note, 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 seven-year period in the regions of Armenia. 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, on the other hand, the subsidies given 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 looted been returned and distributed to the people, but a system has been created to return the looted 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 would especially like to emphasize that the above budget calculations do not in any way reflect the real estate tax calculations. I emphasize this specifically because some are trying to speculate the real estate tax reform schedule that we have adopted as a means of filling the state budget. But if this accusation is wrong, it is wrong only partially, because yes, tax is a means of filling the budget, but real estate tax is a means of filling the community budget and not the state budget. I repeat, not a single penny from the real estate tax goes to the state budget, but exclusively to community budgets, and I must proudly emphasize that in 2024, compared to 2017, the budgets of the communities of the Republic of Armenia tripled. Moreover, not only at the expense of the real estate tax.

For example, under the Local Payments line, community budgets increased by about 276 percent or 18 billion drams, and under the other revenues line, by about 344 percent or 8 billion 386 million drams. 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 mainly affected properties worth 100 million drams and more, that is, properties with prices significantly higher than average.

Please pay special attention to what I will say now: in our country, properties worth 100 million drams and more are 0.62 percent of the total properties. But as a result of the reforms we have implemented, that 0.62 percent pays 42.7 percent of the real estate tax. Now do you see where the fuss is coming from? Pay attention: 0.62 percent of the real estate of the republic pays 42.7 percent of the real estate tax.

It could be said that the reforms we have implemented in the real estate tax system also fit into the logic of returning the looted, because the bulk of the taxes are paid by the rich, including those who became rich illegally.

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

At that time, many oppositionists sitting in the National Assembly hall today accused us of violating the principle of social justice and supporting the rich, to which we responded by saying that the best measurement of wealth is not salary, but real estate, and with the real estate tax we will be able to resolve the issue, which, in fact, according to the statistics I mentioned, showed that this reform was a total success.

I attach great importance to the fact that our dear compatriots understand this nuance. Real estate taxes are included exclusively in community budgets, and community budgets should be spent exclusively on improving the citizen’s yard, street, and immediate environment. In other words, real estate tax is especially the case when I say that by paying this tax, citizens are 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 own ideas for making their lives better in their community and make a decision on financing and implementing the project. This participatory budgeting system is still financed from the state budget, and instead of the 500 million planned for 4 communities in 2024, one billion drams has been allocated for this purpose from the 2025 state budget for 21 communities. And 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 the statelessness is crossed. In other words, the border between the state and the statelessness is crossed by the citizen’s attitude towards the tax paid to the community or the state budget. This attitude shows what state thinking is, 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 properly understanding the source and formula of each citizen's well-being. To accuse the government of making an effort to fill the budget means to accuse the government of building well-being for the citizen.

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

The criterion for a citizen's good or bad life is not only how much he personally earns, but also how much he personally pays taxes to the state and community budget. Because it is not possible to live well in settlements with dirt roads, dark and gloomy streets, devoid of trees and flowers, without parks and groves, without drinking and irrigation water systems, and without sewage. And there are thousands of such settlements, neighborhoods with such a situation in Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, and other large cities.

It doesn't matter how many times a week you eat meat, if you live in such an unsanitary environment, then you are poor. One can eat six meals a day, but if he lives in that environment, then he is poor.

One can not eat meat in 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 nutrition, and no one can underestimate its importance. And are there families in Armenia who do not have bread right now, right today? 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 see that they do not have bread again. We cannot be indifferent tomorrow either, let's give them bread again tomorrow. Let's go on the third day and see what has changed in their lives. We will see that they do not have bread again, and on the third day we cannot be indifferent to their situation either. Let's give them bread on the third day as well, and on the fourth day we'll go and see what condition they are in. We'll see that on the fourth day they don't have bread again. The same will repeat on the fifth day, the sixth day, the first month, the sixth month, the first year, the sixth year, and the tenth year. And this is also evident from official statistics.

More than 10 thousand families have been receiving poverty benefits in Armenia for 10 or more years. Very good, the next question is who pays for that bread. We don’t want to pay taxes here, we don’t want to pay taxes there, we don’t want to, who pays for that bread? Very good, we give it from somewhere, for ten years we have been giving them good or bad bread and what has changed in the lives of these people? Just one thing, we have humiliated these people for only 10 years, made them dependent and made poverty a state-level mindset, lifestyle, 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, yes, give people bread, but only as long as we are convinced that they make sufficient effort and we make sufficient effort so that they have the opportunity, ability, knowledge, education and skills to earn their own 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 in a well-maintained environment with at least the little bread they have earned. This is our policy and our strategy. And this is the right strategy and a dignified strategy.

Honorable President of the National Assembly, Honorable Vice-President,
Honorable MPs,
Honorable Cabinet Members,
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 nutrition. In strategic terms, the only reliable guarantee of ensuring security is peace, and 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, and 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 agreement, 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 that this is an understandable agenda for the Republic of Armenia. If we close the page of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and we do, what is the point of having a structure dealing with that 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 dispel this concern, we propose to Azerbaijan to sign the Peace Agreement and the joint application to the OSCE on the dissolution of the Minsk Group structures simultaneously. That is, to put the Peace Agreement and the joint application on the dissolution of the Minsk Group structures on the table and sign both the first and the second in the same place, at the same time. This, by the way, is an official proposal.

The next issue that Azerbaijan raises in the context of signing the Peace Agreement is its claim that the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan. I think that in order to correctly position ourselves on this issue, we should first try to proceed from the assumption that Azerbaijan raises this issue as a sincere concern, and not as an excuse not to sign the Peace Agreement, as some experts think.

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

In September 2024, our Constitutional Court examined the Regulation 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 identical to the territory of Soviet Azerbaijan, and on the basis of which the parties agreed to normalize relations in Prague on October 6, 2022, fully complies with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. And therefore, the body authorized to interpret the Constitution of Armenia has determined by an irrevocable decision that there are no territorial claims against Azerbaijan or any other country in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. I repeat, this is a decision with the highest legal force and it is irrevocable.

But on the other hand, as I have had occasion to say, we, in our turn, see territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia in the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan. But we do not raise this issue, because the draft agreement on 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 put forward such claims in the future, with the understanding that the two countries recognize each other’s territorial integrity in line with the territory of the Soviet Republics, as stated in the Alma-Ata Declaration.

So, if we assume that Azerbaijan’s position regarding our Constitution is not an excuse for something else, but a sincere concern, the most effective way to dispel that concern is not to not sign the agreement, but to sign it. Why? Because according to our legislation, the Government is obliged to send the text of the Peace Agreement to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia to verify its compliance with our Constitution.

Although experts do not consider such a possibility to be high after the Constitutional Court's decision of 2025, but 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 with a necessity to make a choice 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 and 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 conflict between the norms of international treaties ratified by the Republic of Armenia and those of laws, the norms of international treaties shall apply''.

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

In order not to be misunderstood, I would like to emphasize again: irrespective of the interpretation, the way to address the issues raised by Azerbaijan is not to not sign the Peace Agreement, but to sign it. And since we also 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 personally 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 taking specific actions aimed at bringing it to life. Among these actions, Azerbaijan’s war rhetoric stands out, along with the rhetoric, which is 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 of an untargeted nature, although two specific cases of 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 period. The mentioned shots are either a consequence of indiscipline in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, 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 above-mentioned cases and take measures to stop them.

I reiterate that I have given the Armenian army a clear order not to violate the ceasefire regime, and the Republic of Armenia is ready to investigate information about the violation of the ceasefire regime by our army. At the same time, I once again propose to Azerbaijan to create a joint mechanism for investigating border incidents, including violations of the ceasefire regime, which will operate on a daily basis.

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, the 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 extremely responsible, not to make statements that directly or indirectly contradict the aforementioned logic, and not to question this logic. This leads to nowhere.

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

Thank you for attention.