Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan marked Republic Day, a national holiday marking the anniversary of the First Armenian Republic in 1918, by visiting the Sardarapat Memorial and calling on citizens to throw off the last vestiges of the Soviet mindset that, he claims, fostered a disdain for statehood and fears of sovereignty and independence.

Pashinyan, flanked by President Vahagn Khachaturyan, Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan, and the country’s top political leadership, said that   the founding of the First Republic, embodied by the battle at Sardarapat, was a turning point in Armenian history, transforming Armenians from a stateless nation into a people who built a republic.

He also urged Armenians not to repeat the mistakes of the past, of historic Armenia, although he failed to specify what those mistakes were.

Pashinyan reiterated his concept of a ‘real Armenia’, the current Republic of Armenia, with an internationally recognized territory of 29,743 square kilometers.

“Get rich and enrich yourself with individual efforts”, Pashinyan exhorted from the podium. “Here is the homeland. Here is bread, here is the state. Stay here and proclaim Armenia is my home, the people are my family.”

He said that Armenia’s international prestige is growing under his administration, citing a strategic partnership with the United States and developing relations with Russia and China.

“Our partnership with India is deepening, and our relations with France and the European Union are at an unprecedented high level,” Pashinyan said.

He argued that peace and security are the cornerstones of his administration, coupled with an objective analysis of the realities facing Armenia.