On a working visit to Japan, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian met with representatives of the local Armenian community.
In particular, the President spoke about the goals of his visit to Japan, about building a strong country and the role of the Diaspora in the process, as well as the consequences of the war and the lessons learned.
“The enormous difficulties of the war can be described in one word – crisis. It is a crisis because we have lost thousands of young lives, many young people have lost their health, there is a moral and psychological crisis, because losing a war is psychologically difficult, especially for a nation that won the war 26 years ago. You have to learn to tell the truth, no matter how bitter it is, because when you tell the truth, you have to be ready to solve problems with the next step. It will not be easy to solve, because it will take years,” the President said.
He noted that the defeat should be a lesson for all of us, from the President of the Republic, the Government, the National Assembly to ordinary citizens.
“And there are many lessons. First of all, we must be able to live with the reality. The other conclusion is that any state ultimately builds its future based on its own advantages. And people are our main resource. We have an advantage here because we have the Diaspora. There are a lot of Armenians living in Russia, the United States, France, all over the world, which is a huge advantage,” said President Sarkissian.
“We have compatriots who educate, get educated, develop, gain experience, then they can bring all this to Armenia, but we put obstacles. The 21st century, after all, will not be a century of natural resources. The technology companies, not the oil ones have long been the largest companies in the world,” Sarkissian said.
The President stressed that our future is to build a strong Armenia, and for that we must first use our advantage – the human resources. Speaking about the possibility of using the potential of the Diaspora for the development of the country, President Sarkissian noted that constitutional changes as one of the main ways. “We must do everything so that any Armenian, no matter where he lives, has the opportunity to serve the homeland voluntarily, and there should be no barriers.”
Emphasizing that a strong Armenia is also a technologically developed Armenia, the President said that all of us should look into future. “And the future lies with artificial intelligence rather than ordinary programming, biotechnology rathern than ordinary biology.”
The President noted that one of the purposes of the visit to Japan is to meet with world’s leading companies in the field of technology. “Armenia and Japan can work together, especially in the field of high technologies. I hope that Japanese companies will participate in the process of technological development of Armenia.”
Speaking about the vision of having a developed country, President Sarkissian noted. “Like any other state, we have only one way to succeed – to build a truly strong state. In other words, we must first have the idea of statehood in the heart and mind of each of us, to be pro-state people. A strong state also means a state that can achieve great success with small resources, that is, it is disciplined, has a vision, knows where it is going. And since it is a small country, that vision cannot be ordinary, it must be turned into a mission. When you are small, you must be able to unite all your forces so that the force of your blow is great. A small state can do that. There are many such examples in the world.”
At the end of the meeting, wishing success to the participants, the President noted. “I want to hope that in the future each of you will start thinking about Armenia as a country where he feels safe, with which he connects the own future and the future of children.”
