PM Pashinyan: Peace came at a high cost of suffering, but our main  mission is accomplished

ArmInfo.Today, we have a completely different situation compared to 2018. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made this statement on April 15 while presenting the 2025 report  on the implementation and results of the government's 2021-2026 program.

According to him, Armenia is currently independent, sovereign,  democratic, developed, peaceful, prosperous, and secure as never  before. Moreover, as the prime minister noted, life expectancy today  is higher than ever. According to 2024 data, the average life  expectancy of the country's citizens was 78.6 years, an all-time  high.

Pashinyan noted that the development prospects of the Armenian state  are also more than obvious, primarily due to the peace established  between Armenia and Azerbaijan following the initialing of the  relevant treaty in Washington on August 8, 2025, with the support of  US President Donald Trump. As a result of the agreements reached  then, Armenia will have truly historic prospects, and the  implementation of the TRIPP project will finally lift the country out  of the 34-year blockade. Moreover, these agreements will make it  possible to avoid further hostility. "And today, peace has been  established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which still has a fairly  strong legal basis, despite talk of a verbal agreement in Washington  and the lack of a legal basis. In particular, there is an agreement  on border delimitation and demarcation commissions, which is the  first interstate bilateral treaty and was ratified by the parliaments  of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the fall of 2024. The principles laid  out in the Almaty Declaration of 1991 are recognized as the basis for  the delimitation process. This is the cornerstone, which has binding  legal force," the Prime Minister of Armenia noted.

He pointed to the importance of demarcating the 12-kilometer border  between Armenia and Azerbaijan in terms of overcoming the atmosphere  of hostility. The fact that a school in Kirants, which is located 50  meters from the border, no longer sounds so frightening. When  children go to school 50 meters from the border and play football 30  meters away, that is a sign of peace. The result of this peace, Nikol  Pashinyan continued, is that for two years now, gunfire has been  silenced at the borders, and no one has been killed or injured.  Moreover, approximately 3,600 private houses are being built in the  districts bordering Azerbaijan as part of a program initiated by the  Armenian government. Never before has housing been built in these  districts on such a scale. Along with the housing, 18 schools and 21  kindergartens are being built.

The Prime Minister also noted that, amid the ceasefire between the  two countries, freight is being transported by rail, and oil products  are being shipped from Azerbaijan to Armenia, resulting in savings  for citizens amounting to billions of drams, as monopolies in the  country's market have been eliminated, an operation that took eight  years to combat. "The fight was against the mafia. The results of the  agreements with Azerbaijan, in terms of oil prices and inflation,  would have been far more significant if direct rail service between  the two countries had been established," the head of government  noted.

He reiterated that peace has been established between Armenia and  Azerbaijan, but the question arises about the price. "The price for  peace was what was possible. Yes, in many ways it came at the cost of  numerous sacrifices, suffering, and going through hell, but today we  have what was our most important goal," Nikol Pashinyan stated.