Below is the full statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Dear people, dear countrymen,

“On 23 August, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR adopted the Declaration on Armenia’s Independence, and today we celebrate the 33rd anniversary of this event.

“The Declaration of Independence is a crucial document, which laid the foundation for our current statehood. It was adopted during the culmination of the 1988 Karabakh movement, in conditions of economic, political and ideological crisis in the Soviet Union.

“Before and especially after the 2020 war I numerously read and re-read the text of the declaration. And I have to confess, my post-war readings to some extent differed from the pre-war readings.

“An analysis of the text of the declaration shows that we’d eventually chosen the kind of narrative and content which is based on the formula which made us part of the Soviet Union, a confrontational narrative with the regional environment which was to keep us in constant conflicts with our neighbors.

“With the Declaration of Independence, we declared the trajectory of leaving the Soviet Union, but also closed all our roads for leaving the Soviet Union, in other words with the Declaration of Independence adopted in the end of the 20th century we adopted a formula which had already led us to the loss of independence in the beginning of the 20th century. Now we don’t know, we can’t say for sure what the other roads would have led to, but analyzing and understanding the road we passed is our historical duty. In 2018, before and after assuming the post of the Prime Minister of Armenia, I treated the Declaration of Independence of Armenia as a ‘biblical message’, nonetheless, as fundamental [of a document] as it is, the declaration needed and needs a deep analysis, because nevertheless it is a political document, with all subsequent consequences. And now, on the 33rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I’d like to underscore that the agenda of peace adopted by our government is an agenda of independence, because we shall have independence when we have peace. As long as we don’t have peace, the ghost of the USSR will haunt our skies, the skies of our region. I choose independence, sovereignty and democracy. The citizen of the Republic of Armenia choses independence, sovereignty and democracy. Glory to the martyrs and long live the Republic of Armenia.”