Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
Since independence, 2025 is the first calendar year in which we have had no casualties as a result of gunfire with Azerbaijan. We have had no casualties as a result of gunfire on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border since March 2024, for more than 22 months now.
This is not due to coincidence, but is the implementation of the strategy of the people of Armenia, that is, the implementation of the strategy delegated by you to the Government and the parliamentary majority in the 2021 snap elections.
This strategy is expressed in the ideology of the Real Armenia and is connected with our new practice of reading and rereading the history of the Armenian people, searching for and finding hidden messages in it, and turning these messages into knowledge applicable to real life.
We were accused of conspiring to change that history.
Meanwhile, our goal was to change not the history of Armenia that has already happened, but the history that is to happen.
Our goal was ultimately to overcome the role delegated to us by the martyred people, and at the cost of many victims and sacrifices, we have achieved that goal.
We were accused of acting against our identity, while we saw the obvious, that our identity is our state, our state is our identity, and we invited all citizens of the Republic of Armenia, Armenians around the world, to see the obvious reality that the agenda of strengthening the state is the agenda of strengthening identity. We are strengthening our state, therefore we are strengthening our national identity.
We were accused of either denying historical Armenia or denying our history, while our policies are ultimately the result of listening to our history, which tells us: “Don’t repeat, stop repeating me.”
The inspiration for the ideology of Real Armenia is historical Armenia, whose destiny tells us: “Don’t follow my path, don’t turn the Republic of Armenia into historical Armenia.”
In 2021, we said, “There is a future!” Today, we say, “The future is today,” and today we live in the future for which you, the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, voted in 2021. 2025 is the first full calendar year of that peaceful future, peace.
We not only formulated the ideology of the Real Armenia, but also turned the Republic of Armenia into a real state that operates in the real world.
The geography of my international bilateral official meetings in 2025 is unimaginable. President of the United States, President of Russia, President of China, President of France, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, President of Turkey, President of Kazakhstan, President of the United Arab Emirates, President of Azerbaijan, President of Tajikistan, Pope, President of the European Council, President of the European Commission, Chancellor of Germany, Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister of Belgium, Prime Minister of Georgia, Prime Minister of Estonia, Prime Minister of Albania.
In all these meetings, we pursued one goal: to position Armenia as a fully independent and sovereign state that does not need guardianship, but can understand its own needs and problems, can make decisions necessary for its own perpetuity, for its own perpetuity, and not for its own survival. And we have achieved this goal.
We are accused of being pro-Turkish and pro-Azerbaijani, while our task is to see and know our region and environment with our own eyes and not allow our historical, yes, justified fears of facing our region to be used to manipulate us, to break our will to be independent and sovereign. And we have achieved that goal. Today, the Republic of Armenia is a state more independent than ever, more sovereign than ever, more secure than ever.
Epoch-making changes are taking place in our region: for the first time since independence, trains are bringing cargo to the Republic of Armenia through the territory of Azerbaijan, the first signs of bilateral trade with Azerbaijan are appearing, the first major cases of goods acquisition have been recorded.
This is a new history being written, and this is a history of peace.
The culmination of the first act of that history was the establishment of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On August 8, 2025, at the summit convened at the White House at the initiative of US President Donald Trump, we adopted a Declaration with the President of Azerbaijan, which was also signed as a witness by President Trump.
In our presence, the Foreign Ministers of the two countries initialed the Agreement “On the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan”, the agreed text of which we and official Baku had announced in March 2025.
Before that, in August-October 2024, the Deputy Prime Ministers of the two countries signed the Regulations on the Joint Activities of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Border Demarcation Commissions, which was later ratified in both countries, receiving the highest legal force.
This is the first document signed and ratified in a bilateral format between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is actually a cornerstone of peace. In that document, the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration is enshrined as the basic principle of the demarcation of the state border between the two countries.
This is the only formula for real peace: to recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty within the administrative borders of the Soviet republics, because any other formula would turn into an endless and bloody debate about the borders of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. That debate would have no end.
This is the reason why in March 2025 I announced the need to not continue the Karabakh movement. The key point here is that I did not make either this or the Prague statement of October 6, 2022, as a concession, as some are trying to present, but I made those statements as a vital necessity arising from the conscious and real interests of the Republic of Armenia.
This is an important nuance. We are accused of making unilateral concessions. The truth is that we have made no, absolutely no concessions, we have pursued the agenda of the sustainability of our state, we have followed the interests of our state.
The phrase “Karabakh was ours, now it is no longer ours” is an expression of the consciousness of someone who has found himself in a geopolitical trap, while the consciousness of the state and the citizen says: “The Republic of Armenia was not ours, now it is ours.” Yes, at the cost of the lives of our martyrs, yes, at the cost of our suffering and deprivation, and thus more precious, thus more beloved than anything else, because it is nothing more than a dream that has come true. The Republic of Armenia is our dream that has come true, and we are living in our dream today.
Dear people, dear citizens,
We have reached the future and we live in the future, and we will no longer appear in the past. The year 2026 will be a beautiful continuation of our present future.
In a few minutes, we will celebrate the New Year, having recorded high economic growth. Thus, together with you, we will have fulfilled the task we set in the 2021 elections to ensure an average annual economic growth of 7 percent. After the people's, non-violent, velvet revolution of 2018, the economy of the Republic of Armenia has grown by more than 50 percent. In 2025, the tax revenues of the state budget are 30 percent more than the entire state budget revenues of 2017.
This is thanks to you, to the business entities operating in Armenia, creating results, paying taxes prescribed by law, to those citizens who do not forget to provide or demand a cash register receipt. Thank to all of you. You are the rock on which our homeland-state is based.
It is thanks to the people working in the Republic of Armenia, creating results, paying taxes prescribed by law, providing or requesting a cash register receipt that in a few minutes the universal health insurance system will begin to operate, for which the state budget will pay instead of those under 18 and pensioners over 65.
This means that there will be a significant increase in the standard of living of pensioners, because it is obvious that the largest and primary expenses of pensioners are related to healthcare and now their expenses will significantly and tangibly decrease. And in the case of non-cash transactions of pensioners, the refund will increase, reaching 20 percent, the same applies for beneficiaries.
In 2026, we will complete the program for the construction, reconstruction or major renovation of 300 schools and 500 kindergartens and will immediately begin the program for the construction, reconstruction or major renovation of another 300 schools, 100 kindergartens, as well as at least 100 art schools, sports schools, and sports centers. The Academic City megaproject has entered the practical phase and the pace of the program’s implementation will increase.
What do I have to say to those people who continue to live in poor social conditions? Our strategy for solving their problem is encapsulated in the famous saying: “If you want to feed a man, don’t give him a fish, but teach him how to fish.” A capable person should earn his living through his work. If he works and cannot earn his living, then his work is not sufficiently productive and we must support and help the person to increase his efficiency as a worker, to acquire the necessary skills to work effectively, and this is also a path of education.
The Government has three solutions for any issue in any field: the first is education, the second is education, the third is education. Education for us should become and is becoming a national way of life and mentality, which is key to solving any external and internal, economic and social issue.
Thanks to this strategy, today in Armenia there are teachers and ordinary soldiers receiving salaries of 700 thousand drams and more. This is a real achievement of a real citizen of Real Armenia.
In 2026, the rise of the international prestige of the Republic of Armenia will be reflected. In May, the 8th Summit of the European Political Community will be held in Yerevan, and in October, the COP-17 Summit on Biodiversity. Armenia will host several dozen heads of state and delegates from hundreds of countries.
2026 promises great economic and investment activity, because the implementation of the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” project will be launched, which will institutionalize the lifting of the blockade of the Republic of Armenia. An epoch-making event that seemed unimaginable years ago.
The most important event of 2026, however, is the regular elections of the National Assembly to be held in June. It is in these elections that the citizen of the Republic of Armenia must irrevocably stand up for the peace he has created, the state he has reestablished, his, that is, the people's power.
The elections will be free, fair, democratic, and the people will win, the Republic of Armenia will win. The future will win, which is today, here, now.
2026 will be a year of consolidation and unity. Such unity, at the core of which is the Republic of Armenia, its internationally recognized sovereign territory, the right of its citizens to live freely, prosperously and happily, the independence and state interests of the Republic of Armenia.
Glory to the martyrs and long live the Republic of Armenia.
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. I love you all.
