The message reads:

“Dear people,

Dear compatriots,

Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Armenia. The Declaration, adopted by the Supreme Council on August 23, 1990, states that the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic is beginning the process of establishing an independent state.

That process de jure ended with the independence referendum of 1991 September 21 and the recognition of the Republic of Armenia by the international community.

De facto, that process has not ended till today, not because we don’t have independence, but because independence is like health, which even if you have it, you have to take care of it every day.

The government is fighting for the independence of the Republic of Armenia every day. Independence is security for us, and the international procedures ensuring it are cracking before our eyes, and one of these first cracks was unfortunately reflected in Nagorno Karabakh.

Independence is normalized relations with neighbors: we have excellent relations with some of our neighbors, but there is no significant progress in the relations with others because they demand a very high price from us or they think that we demand a very high price from them.

Independence is firm allied relations for us, but allies are not always allies of you, but of those who ally against you.

Independence is confrontation, and for the sake of our independence and statehood we must have a will to confront ourselves, our history and worldview. Independence is a mindset, a state-centered mindset, and its non-existence squanders sovereignty, security and future.

Independence is freedom, and in our view, people have created an independent state to feel free and secure there. Independence is education, and as long as every child living in the most remote village does not have the same access to education as it is in the center of the capital, we must yearn for our future.

Independence is a legal procedure, a rule of law, respecting law, not overturning it, should be a mark of superiority. 

Independence is work, a work that should create not spoil.

Independence is like the Parable of the Ten Minas of the Bible, the meaning of which is the following: whoever has, he will be given, whoever doesn’t have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Therefore, let’s have independence, we will have independence.

I congratulate all of us on August 23”.