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03, 2023

President Vahagn Khachaturyan received students and pupils from the Shirak region

On March 2, at the Residence of the President, President Vahagn Khachaturyan received a group of students from the Gyumri branch of the Armenian State University of Economics and high school students from a number of enlarged communities of the Shirak region.

“I have a special attitude towards the youth, especially those young people who aspire to receive education and show themselves in society at their best,” said President Khachaturyan, welcoming the young people. The President noted that he will deliver his speech on the topic of “Vision for the creation of a progressive state”, which was presented within the framework of the questions proposed by the youth.

Vahagn Khachaturyan provided a short historical overview, where he spoke of the difficulties facing the newly independent Armenia and the principles of creating a statehood. “There was an important principle in the 1990s, which we adopted and still adhere to. We believe that Armenia should be a democratic country…The principles, which served as basis for the creation of our state in the 1990s, began to be implemented in life and turned into a reality before their embodiment in the Constitution in 1995”.

The President also touched upon the achievements, omissions and problems of our country.

“There’s an important fact that I’d like you to use as a principle in any situation in the future. It’s always easy to look for someone to blame elsewhere… but first of all, we need to find it in ourselves, and we need to have the courage to recognize it. And of course, there is nothing odd or inhumane in it. Yes, we were guilty, and we need to fix that mistake. Maybe the mistake was that we didn’t provide responses in time, or maybe we didn’t listen to our parents, elders, and youth, or maybe we didn’t take into account some circumstances at that moment, but nonetheless, in such situations, we need to be ready to find the answer to the question: why did that happen?”

Speaking of the freedoms gained after the collapse of the Soviet Union, President Khachaturyan said: “At that time, we were already the ones to choose our ideology, our place in society, our role and position, and there were plenty of opportunities for self-expression.

We all have a chance to express our knowledge, our abilities, to become presentable and to succeed.”

The President also touched on state-citizen relations and obligations, as well as the importance of the establishment of state institutions.

“When we ask what state we want to have, the first criterion among all should be the ability to love. And how do we treat our loved one, be that a child, father, parent, friend or adult? How much do we love our country? If we love our country, time won’t be enough, we should know each centimetre of our country.”

Speaking of the difficulties facing our country today and their solutions, the President noted: “We need to overcome all the hardships, we need to develop and become more competitive, raise the level of welfare in our country and find the answer to the question of how to solve the problems we are facing.

Who should solve these problems? This could be the most important question here. You are the ones to solve them, we are, all together. What we see in “we” is very important. That “we” should be an educated, enlightened person who loves this country and has future-oriented plans. We have no other potential.

You should use the opportunities that you have as young people to pursue an education. We see our future in an educated society, which should also have an appropriate environment. Our success will depend on how well we are prepared, educated, aware and clear about the vision of the country we picture.”

The President also answered the questions of the young people. 

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