Having gone through suffering and sacrifice, today, here we are, we  have reached this point

ArmInfo. Below is RA Premier Nikol Pashinyan's congratulatory message on the 34th anniversary of Armenia's independence: 

Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

Today we celebrate the 34th anniversary of the independence of the  Republic of Armenia.

On September 21, 1991, the following question was put to a  referendum: "Do you agree that the Republic of Armenia should be an  independent democratic state outside the USSR?" and 94 percent of our  people, voters, answered "yes" and thus the Third Republic of Armenia  was founded.

What were the citizens who participated in the referendum and who  said "yes" to independence dreaming about at the time of their vote?  There are no such statistics, but surely, those compatriots of ours  were guided by the natural desire to build a free, peaceful,  prosperous, happy state.

Unfortunately, the life of the Third Republic did not turn out like  that: the blockade, war, economic decline, emigration did not allow  the dream of the independence referendum to become a reality. But  even in the most difficult and tragic days that the Third Republic  has experienced, that dream, although might have faded, has never  extinguished in the eyes, minds, and souls of our citizens.

With the peace established on August 8, 2025, that dream has once  again filled the Republic of Armenia, and it is our duty to first  cherish it and then make it a reality.  Having gone through suffering  and sacrifice, today, here we are, we have reached this point, and  this is what the agenda for establishing the Fourth Republic is  about, about never missing the opportunity to fulfill a dream again.

An independent, sovereign, democratic, peaceful, protected,  developed, free and happy Armenia is waiting for our care like a  newborn baby. And we, all of us, dear people, dear citizens of the  Republic of Armenia, must be fathers and mothers to it. We ourselves  must be fathers and mothers, understanding that in the first quarter  of the 21st century, the wheel of our destiny is truly in our hands,  and we must never let that wheel go.  Dear people, dear citizens of  the Republic of Armenia, I congratulate all of us on the occasion of  the Independence Day of the Republic of Armenia.  

Glory to the martyrs and long live the Republic of Armenia.