For the first time after a two-month hiatus, the government convened a sitting today. The sitting began with a minute of silence in memory of the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the Motherland.
This is also the first meeting of the renewed cabinet. The Ministers of Defense, Foreign Affairs, ESCS, Emergency Situations, Labor and Social Affairs have been replaced. A change of the Minister of Economy is also expected. The Prime Minister thanked the resigned ministers for their work and wished success to the newly appointed heads of departments.
The Prime Minister started the sitting with a special speech.
"We are living in extremely hard times. This time is aggravated by the fact that many of our compatriots, many sisters and brothers are not with us. But our imperative and what to do is the following. We must live through these difficult times and overcome its burden.
I want to say again, as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, I take full responsibility for the situation. But I realize that I am responsible not only for what has happened so far, but also for further developments. Ensuring external and internal stability, security, implementation of the roadmap published by me is an absolute priority, a necessity, all our efforts should be directed to it", said the Prime Minister, adding that the Government has already adopted two programs to support the people of Artsakh and will take as many measures as needed.
The restoration of the war-affected settlements in Syunik and Gegharkunik regions will also be in the focus of the Government and will be carried out similar to the works done in Tavush, the PM said.
"Searching for the missing and exchanging prisoners is an absolute priority. We work on these issues on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this work depends not only on us. Activities and further improvement of social protection guarantees for the families of the victims, persons with disabilities and other war-affected groups and citizens are on our urgent list", Pashinyan said, adding:
"Even in such a difficult period, it is necessary to create a guarantee for the further continuation of the reforms, the scope and agenda of which must be expanded due to the new challenges that have emerged. Along with all this, a process of revealing, clarifying and analyzing the causes must take place, and the Armenian society must receive clear answers as to what happened and why.
People need to know the truth in order to be able to make decisions. Accordingly, our most important task is to preserve the feeling of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia to own their country and situation, to institutionalize this circumstance. The citizen of the Republic of Armenia must be sure that he is the real owner of the situation and must build his future on this feeling. The people must also decide with whom to build that future.
The creative potential of the Armenian people is inexhaustible, and one of the most important things to do in the future is to focus that potential on building a new future. We must not allow faith in that future to be killed. And our daily work should be aimed at strengthening and developing that faith”.
