President of the Republic Vahagn Khachaturyan met with the Primate of the Western Armenian Diocese in the USA, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian.
Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, welcoming the President's visit, noted that the presence of high-ranking government officials at the Primate's residence and, in general, the realization of opportunities for meetings with Diaspora organizations gives an additional impetus not only to strengthening business, spiritual and simple human relations between the state of Armenia and the Diaspora, but also inspires Armenians living far from their homeland in further stimulating their activities.
Archbishop Derderian noted in his speech. " Your visit here consider a visit to Your home. This house of prayer is equally Your house. With Your visit, You represent the Motherland and I am sure that in any place, any meeting, where You have the opportunity and honor to greet the children of our nation, You will also fill everyone's souls and essence with patriotism and will also renew their vow to loyalty to the Motherland.
Our word should be only a word of gratitude for Your visit. Our speech should also be a prayer for the God to always bless You, all those people who do their best for our statehood, for our Motherland to remain strong, unwavering and unbroken from all kinds of trials.
When faith is what guides us and true patriotism is what drives us to life, then we must overcome all kinds of difficulties. It is the motto, mission and goal of our life, and it should continue to be as a servant of the Armenian Church.
Through You, we address our prayer to all state personnel, to our native authorities, so that they remain strong, confident in their service, and our prayer for our nation.
The past years were not easy, they were full of trials, but the word of Christ, as well as the message of the Gospel, clearly tell us the following: through trials we become stronger, trials and difficulties have always been, there are today, there will be tomorrow, but this is not a reason for us to weaken, but on the contrary, trials must become experience, they should also strengthen us to become even more united, become one soul, one heart, one body, especially when our life, our service, our existence and conscious life is for the Motherland."
Expressing gratitude for the reception and "truthful words", President Vahagn Khachaturyan said: "Your words are very important for all of us, as well as for our state in these difficult times. I share Your point of view that, having really gone through the trials, we find the right way. Unfortunately, these trials have accumulated, especially after 2020, and have caused great difficulties, but we will gradually overcome them.
There is one important circumstance that I would like to talk about. The Armenian authorities have no problems with the church, and especially with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Neither today's authorities, nor tomorrow's, nor the day after tomorrow's can have problems with the church. Everyone is aware of this, because this is our history, and in this history the Armenian Apostolic Church has always occupied its place and role, no matter what. Now we have statehood, and we rely on the church to make this statehood stronger, because this statehood needs a soul. We ask you to always lead us on the righteous path. Be sure that the path chosen by today's government really leads to peace.
Our problem is very clear, we must be able to live with our neighbors, regardless of the problems we had in different historical periods. We cannot take Armenia and take it to another place, and we cannot force them to move either. It is a historically formed environment, with which we have had problems for thousands of years, we have had wars, but in the end, we exist and we will continue to exist."
