President
Report by Serzh Sargsyan Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia at the 17th Party Congress. 3
18.12.2021
Now, let me turn to our party issues.
You know well that during our time in government I have always treated with suspicion the reportedly growing numbers of our party membership. I didn’t think it coincided with the numbers of devoted Republicans. Like in many post-Soviet countries, we unfortunately could not avoid bureaucratization, artificially inflating our party, as well as from opportunists. I treat them as “transit passengers”, who did not endure the trying times. They thought the ship of Republicans was sinking for good, thought that “the king is dead” and that it was time to shout "long live” the next king. You know, there was an interesting pattern in all this: those who caused most criticism about the Republican party, were the first to abandon us and find new safe havens for themselves.
There have also been thousands of regular people who were being listed en masse as new party members by some of our former colleagues. They thought it was impressive for me. At the end of the day, the party had a self-cleaning issue – both in terms of inflated numbers and the structure. You know that a few months ago we initiated a recount of our party ranks, as well as reform process of our local bodies and overall infrastructure. At present in our activities, more than ever, we stress on strong ideological basis and continuity. And I am more than sure that it is our national conservatism that will become the necessary foundation that will help to rebuild Armenia and keep Artsakh Armenian.
The Republican party has been and continues to be the party with widest international connections in our country, which has always been, is and will be put to serve our national interest. Even being out of government we have done more for the protection of our interests abroad, than the entire ‘wardrobe of backpacks’ together with their storekeeper.
For the future activities of our party I prioritize the following directions, which once I have had a chance to lay out at the recent joint event with Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Let me list those in a nutshell:
1. Developing and strenghtening the level of professionalism of the party governance body;
2. Optimising the regional bodies and improving their efficiency;
3. Ensuring the mutual dependance between the numbers of the membership and their active duty;
4. Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the foreign engagements of the party;
5. Harmonisation between the party values and our activities;
6. Maintaining and strenghtening the internal democracy in the party.
Efforts aimed at discovering the potential of the youth, students and the women, and their better engagement with the party will continue to remain priorities for us. Similarly, we will continue seeking solutions to issues of concern for the public, as well as engage in honest and open daily interactions with the people.
It is not any priority for our party today to achieve power. Like other mainstream parties we will seek to form government in order to implement our party programs, fulfill our promises made to the people only after we depose this capitulant – jointly with other healthy political forces. This will give Armenia a chance to stand up from its knees, straighten our back, become stronger and once again hold the back of Artsakh and serve as its security guarantor.
I am saying this so that once again the opportunist thugs will not try again to squeeze into our ranks and so that they understand that only those can become Republican party member who prioritise the statehood over holding power, and sense of dignity – over holding official positions at any cost.
The Republicans do not want power today, but we want Armenia to maintain a sovereign statehood.
You have perhaps noticed that the Republican party has recently offered more active role to the young party members. As you see, two of them are moderating the party congress with me, while tens of active and devoted young people are in the hall and thousands outside of these walls.
Despite the fact that the Republican party have been the first officially registered socio-political organisation in Armenia, our rank and file are relatively young. Around 50% of those who applied for membership since 2018 are young men and women. They tie their dreams of living in strong and developed Armenia with the Republican party and are ready to put their energy and efforts in service of this objective. We have no right to let them down. We can affirmatively say that the Republican party is among those in Armenia that are becoming younger.
You may recall that our youth was at the epicenter of post-November 10 developments in Armenia last year. Dear young party members, I promise to you that no cold winter night spent in that tent and no other peaceful civil disobedience effort against this capitulators’ regime, which they were trying to violently suppress, has been in vain. For being in the forefront of this difficult, but honorable struggle not only I am expressing my appreciation, but also the next generations will – years later when they will learn the history lessons in the textbooks.
The founding fathers of our party – Ashot Navasardyan, Andranik Margaryan and other fellow members of our party have devoted their youthful years to the national liberation struggle and the cause of state-building. Being a Republican is a demanding responsibility which entails self-sacrifice and hard work. You simply must become an example and torch bearer of national conservative values in your respective communities. Conservatism is not about worshipping the age-old matters, it’s neither backward-looking like you are being continuously propagated from various corners. The goal of this propaganda effort is to uproot our people from its historical origins. You also should keep in mind that the political party which has many devoted and hard-working young members is destined to succeed.
Our party approach towards the youth is also reflected in the suggested draft statutory changes, which I hope will be approved. We propose the establishment of a new party body – a student organisation. My colleagues will present this in greater detail shortly. I shall only underline that the students have always been the driving engine of the political processes. I rest assured that this new body will unite great numbers of students with firm national-conservative values.
In the previous two congresses we have highlighted the establishment and the development of party school after Andranik Margaryan. This school has already accumulated an alumni network of 600 graduates and 100 participants in the current period.
In the past few years we have paid serious attention to offering professional training not only to our fellow party members, but also across the country to educate politically mature, knowledgeable and competitive human resources and continuously invest in their professional development. Our political school after Andranik Margaryan has greatly contributed to these efforts by having become a well established, recognizable institution for non-formal quality education. Our graduates – and among them representatives of many other political parties and non-partisan youth – have played active roles in the socio-political life of our country in their respective fields, many of whom are civil servants, parliamentarians, NGO leaders etc.
We will continue to develop our political school and its efforts shall be made visible in our society. We believe that the future achievements of the Republican party are greatly dependant on the existance of demanding and politically literate voter. You know I have delivered remarks for all cohorts of our school. This gives me many reasons to say that we have excellent young people.
Dear colleagues,
Now let me turn to the Third Artsakh war, some of its circumstances and consequences.
In 2020 our people faced a catastrophe that was unleashed by Azerbaijan with full support of Turkey behind its back.
A year ago armed drones were swirling over our heads – not to film a wedding or music festival, but to take human lives. Our children and grandchildren were thinking not about university admissions or falling in love, but about surviving in that human flesh grinder and protecting our homeland in the war, where many prohibited weapons were also used.
Why did that war begin? And what negotiation package did we inherit to these incompetent people with no sense of homeland?
Let me reiterate here what I have said many times: I have always been in favor of compromise option for the peaceful resolution of the Artsakh issue – within a framework of red lines well perceived by us and the international community. That red line, drawn with the blood and dignity of the Armenian people, is the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh. I have engaged in continuous negotiations for ten years on the basis of one supreme principle, which is – what are we going to get, not what we are yielding. In all the negotiation documents we have consistently developed the detailed mechanisms, processes and essential international guarantees for the implementation of the right of people of Artsakh for self-determination. I left such a package where all vital interests of our people had been fully protected, where Artsakh’s Armenianness in the future was guaranteed and it was acceptable for the international community as a whole and the co-chair states of the OSCE Minsk Group in particular. We had a strong voice in the diplomatic front and our positions were solid not only because of negotiation skills, or deep understanding of the nuances of Artsakh issue, or well-oiled work with the great powers, but also because of our glorious army, which had been victorious in the first war, and which was undergoing continuous modernisation, working on its mistakes and due to its patriotic spirit was ready to force the adversary back to the negotiation table each time after a good slap on its face in the frontline.
I have never played the fool in the peace process, unlike what this capitulant was stupidly boasting in the internal meetings due to his provincialism. Instead, with other colleagues we have negotiated with sense of dignity and faithfully. Armenia has been a regional player in those years, full-fledged participant in relevant processes in the international community, a sovereign nation with strong core, legitimate aspirations and powerful army. Whereas this provincial charlatan thought that after deceiving the Armenian people he will trick the rest in the international community with similar success. A person who aspired to begin negotiations from “his own chapter”, the author of “I negotiate what I want to negotiate” cynical statement, someone who preferred to learn about the negotiation history from our enemy, who brought forward unnecessary conditions before the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, and as a result lost the support of our allies and partners, has shepherded the negotiation process to a deadlock and ruined the diplomatic trenches we digged and improved over years of intensive hard work, and brought war and catastrophe to our people as a result of all these. This is so vivid, so obvious and easily proved, that I can openly answer three more questions that our people seem to be concerned about:
- Could this war be averted?
- Yes, I think this war could be averted.
- If, nevertheless, armed hostilities did begin, could we possibly avoid having so many losses?
- Yes, we certainly could have avoided such tragic losses.
- Could we possibly neutralise the new threats after November 9 ?
- Yes, that too was possible. For example, the territorial concessions based on verbal agreements were a sign of shameful cowardice; not pursuing the POW-related paragraph 8 of the November 9 statement and instead calling all of them deserters only to avoid responsibility was a sign of barbarity, and finally – incidents leading to more than 80 new POWs in a situation of ceasefire were a result of impotence.
Immediately after the war these capitulative authorities began glorifying our sons who were captured by the enemy, then were giving false promises to their families and relatives on the eve of the snap elections and urged them to wait for a few more months and promised to repatriate all those heroes later. A few more months passed, even a year, and having done literally nothing on their own, now they are meanly declaring that it should now be investigated in what circumstances those had been captured because possibly now they are deserters. Why did they not tell this a year ago? Why are they now blaming their own impotence onto our soldiers? Is this yet another scene in their scenario of fully undermining and discrediting our army?
One more question, that our society is concerned about, is whether there had been any treason.
Yes, there was. Since they were ignorant to the extent of treason, treasonously careless, treasonously blind and deaf, treasonously anti-national and without sense of homeland and, meantime, treasonously arrogant and proud. I am sure that the whole truth about the Third Artsakh war will inevitably resurface and the state criminals will be subject to the most deserving punishment available to them. Only in that case the revenge for our sons buried in the Yerablur and other cemeteries across Armenian and Artsakh cities and towns will be taken. The pressure of their tombstones, erected to immortalize their memory in their homeland, will be a little alleviated, and the tears of those mourning their loss will not be this bitter.
Eternal glory to all our fallen martyrs and glory to their feats. We bow to their memory. Let us honor the memory of those fallen for our Homeland with a minute of silence.
The Armenian people has got questions not only about domestic issues, which are about who, why and how caused this war. Our people also has questions for those out of our country – which is why and how the civilized world of the 21st century has tolerated and thus indirectly encouraged the Azero-Turkish war crimes against our people, grave violations of internationally recognised human rights of those fallen victim of this aggression in Artsakh and Armenia. Thousands of irrefutable pieces of evidence have been published to testify all that.
New wars can and must be prevented, yet for that purpose we shall first and foremost look at the realities with open eyes and in a straightforward manner, speak about those issues honestly and be righteous when dealing with irrefutable pieces of evidence. More importantly, act before speaking, act without delay since thousands of human lives just depend on it.
The Armenian people aspire for sustainable peace in the South Caucasus. We want stability and development based on norms of international law, mutual compromises and dignity, and not based on the ideas of those considering that the issue is resolved militarily and for good and Armenians have to be put into ghettos.
Today, more than a year after the 44-day war, the evolving situation around Syunik and not only is very troubling. The violations of the Armenian territorial integrity are reprehensible. These events unfolded this way because of the capitulative and disgraceful authorities and their criminal inaction, wrong assessment of the situation, the deep crisis of their own making in the state governance and national security systems, as well as the calamitous situation caused by the latest war. These individuals still fail to understand, that the words of the state official and especially high-level officials are heard not only in Armenia, but well beyond our borders. There are numerous cases when the short-sighted thoughts of these individuals, as well as their stupid claims meant to cover up for the fatal mistakes made, are thereafter being used and cited against the interests of the Republic of Armenia.
In these circumstances, when our society is yet being unable to recover from the after-war shocks, fears and stress disorders, and is eventually becoming conformist and adopting a role of a passive bystander, the political forces and their leaders, as well as their supporters and foremost the patriotic young people have to shift this mood in the country. They have a lot to do to help our society out of this dangerous coma.
These anti-national populists, who came to power riding on the wave of people’s emotions, expectations and excitement, very quickly abandoned their promises and by the most heinous methods and anti-Constitutional steps began demolishing our statehood.
It’s well known and well documented in human history – populists are only one step away from establishing dictatorship.
In order to cover up their own failures and continuously feed people with fakes and falsehoods, these incapable to govern, illiterate and arrogant populists employ the age-old method of throwing into public discourse this thesis of “blame everything on the former regime”. They do this only to win more time to consolidate their power for further establishment of authoritarian rule – meant to help them avoid responsibility. They are no more content with capturing the executive and legislative branches of power. They have been attacking the judiciary and the media for a long time. By endlessly manipulating with references to the people, alleging to serve the people and be accountable to them, these individuals very quickly began makign decisions behind the back of the people, hold secret negotiations and still cynically declare “we do what we please”.
The lawless and anti-Constitutional moves by the incumbent regime have long been taking place in the shadow of the scared and fearful positioning of the Office of the President, their criminal silence and in some cases even in partnership with them. Same can be said about international and local relevant organisations, diplomatic corps, which have so far tolerated their clear-cut anti-democratic and lawless decisions and actions. In contrast, years ago they would have exhaggerated anything, would raise a lot of noise in international forums, issue reports and make interviews. Is this any coincidence? Have they not been encouraging all this with their positioning? What is the price for this silence? Not sure about them, but for us, our people and the state, this has cost dearly – including the loss of a part of our homeland, loss of thousands of lives of young people, and big blow to Armenian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The end result is, that the individual who allegedly had a “not-an-inch” positioning, has given up everything and still continues to yield more. Yielding everything is easy for that man, since it was not his blood spilled, nor that of his friends for liberating all those lands. Since in his soul homeland is not the highest value, since his office, personal welfare, sick ambitions and material gains are prioritised over ancestral home, the graveyards of grandparents, school of his children and the temples of God.
It’s easy for him, yes. But what about you, my dear people? Is it easy to follow how you are being sold in geopolitical closeout sales? Is it easy to follow how the daily path of your children to schools passes under the watch and guns of Azeri soldiers? Is it easy to follow how the blood spilled by your sons is being reduced to nothing, or put more properly – reduced to oil and petrolium? How they are trying to turn our ancient people into a community of unthinking slaves, into a community of mankurts…
After all this someone who has never fought for peace, has no idea of its price, plays the role of a peace-lover. Someone who never went through a war, and has caused a calamitous war instead. The enemy has put his sword on our throat, taken away of his victory they are now demanding the whole of Armenia, while these disgraceful individuals are on their knees begging for peace from the executioners of our sons, the same executioners that are still torturing and killing Armenian POWs in complete disregard of international law and norms of human morality.
So here we declare:
- The Armenians are peace-loving people, but we will never beg for peace by humiliating terms, and will achieve a dignified peace.
- We will not allow these treasonous land-yielders to justify their anti-national and anti-state decisions with endlessly manipulating our people that is deceived, disappointed and depressed by this loss in the war.
The Republican party, like throughout its existance and whenever our statehood was endangered, had always been in the forefront and continues to stand there, something that has earned us the targeting of internal adversaries and external enemies.
Dear colleagues,
We live in new and very active period of geopolitical shifts, when we witness very active processes unfolding before our eyes both among great powers and regional powerful states, which causes shifts in the existing balance of power and emergence of new spheres of influence. Such massive changes inevitably trigger new crises and increase risks of unpredictable developments. Conflicts escalate in various corners of the world, new sources of escalation add up to the traditional hotbeds of tension and none of this is a source of optimism.
In the present geopolitical realities our regional issues are no more interesting for external players, than their own troubles. We can not go against the logic of developments in global politics and demand the international community to solve our own troubles in our stead. This realization of this simple piece of truth has to be put in the policy foundations of any reasonable government. In contrast, those states or governments that disregarded this truism have endured tragic consequences of historical proportions.
In the past 100 years such massive changes worldwide took place in the course of First and Second World Wars, as well as following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Around 100 years ago, despite all difficulties and hardship, we succeeded in restoring Armenian statehood. Meanwhile, because of failure to appreciate the geopolitical and regional processes, failure to fairly evaluate our own resources, because of inexperience and internal divisions shortly after the independence we faced great losses. The failure to learn the lessons of one’s own mistakes is fraught with recurrence of new disasters.
In times of global shifts, by and large, only those states are being able to position themselves right, which succeed to maintain balance in a difficult geopolitical environment due to flexible diplomacy and well-calculated moves. In contrast, trying to make the whole world take steps towards your arbitrary and often unfounded preferences yields dramatic results. You must walk in sync with global and regional processes. Since the declaration of independence of the Third Republic, Armenia had done exactly this, whereas the small problems did not have big impact on this movement. As a result, we had two sustainable an developing Armenian states, we enjoyed respect in the world as a victorious nation and had been a well-perceived and predictable partner for our friends.
Unfortunately, in the past few years our country has deviated from this simple logic and has chosens an impenetrable and dangerous path. Because of the short-sighted and opportunistic steps taken by the incumbent regime Armenia has lost its former presrige. We have instead become yet another headache for the world, in need for relief and help. Oddly, such expectations of ours are at times being expressed in obscure ambitions and rhetorics, or in other circumstances by humiliating and pitiful readiness to yield on its national interests. This is a road to nowhere. This is generally questions the viability of our statehood and the people.
We must realize that only strong, sovereign and dignified Armenia can be a respected and a trustworthy partner in the world.
The global COVID-19 pandemic adds up to the problems described above. This so far has been not just public health, but also a serious security challenge for all the states in the world, and especially for those lacking potent and irresponsible authorities able to govern in crisis situations. Armenian incumbent authorities are one of those poor cases. Since the very beginning of the pandemic they have adopted such an unserious and irresponsible approach and policies, that people failed to appreciate the whole seriousness of the threats. The irresponsible behaviour of the stupid leader, absurd decisions, belated excuses and the initiated policies in crisis situation not only failed to produce the desired results, but also threw Armenia in the ranks of nations that had suffered this pandemic the most.
Only months after the distastrous war, in that most difficult period for our homeland we were forced by these capitulative authorities to go through snap parliamentary elections. I have already said on one occasion that those snap elections were neither our objective nor our dream. This government of these capitulants, who love their offices more than our homeland, unfortunately, did not resign and instead chose to lead the psychologically distressed people into a new shakeup – snap nationwide elections. The developments in the political field led to a situation, where we were forced to run in these elections, forming the “I have honor” electoral bloc with Homeland Party. The outcome of these elections was rather predictable for us given our own evalution of the situation. Nevertheless, it was still painful for us to witness a sizeable segment of our people being again manipulated by lies, deception, threats of persecution and other ills, instead of throwing the capitulative regime out of the political field and triggering responsibility mechanisms against them for the catastrophe and destruction they had caused.
Despite the wishes of those willing to see the Republican party pushed to the margins, we re-entered the parliament after two years of break. This was achieved despite widely applied government pressure, unwarranted intrusion into our offices, instigating violence, widespread threats and the environment of hatred where the elections were held.
In such a situation, regardless of the small size of our parliamentary faction, in the frameworks of the National Assembly we continue with our colleagues to struggle against these capitulator authorities pursuing their removal a moment earlier. This is in addition to the efforts outside of the parliamentary format.
There are various opinions about the effectiveness of our parliamentarians in this National Assembly with a ruling majority of anti-national elements. We are receptive of the viewpoints of our electorate, as well as their often well-deserved criticism and the demands laid before our MPs. Not once we have declared that our MPs are not clinging to their mandates and in the right moment they are ready to resign in order to continue the struggle with our colleagues outside of the parliament.
“What will come after all this? Is it possible to change anything? And what shall be done for that?” – these are some of the questions asked in every corner these days.
First of all – do not come to terms with this situation, and do not continue living with the mindset that nothing can be changed. We must shrug off the loser psychology and first of all strengthen our spirit, regain faith in our powers and the future of our homeland.
Second – develop your skills and knowledge on a daily basis and make continuous education part of your life. Strive to achieve more and better, become smarter and stronger, since all that is an important precondition to be most helpful to your homeland and serve it with dignity.
Third – look at the reality with open eyes and evaluate everything with clearly established facts, and not under the influence of manipulative statements. Draw correct inferences from your analysis, because it is very important for avoiding same and often fatal mistakes. Don’t deceive yourself with illusions that someone will solve our problems instead of us.
Fourth – never seize using all opportunities, I repeat, all and every opportunities to struggle against the anti-national, treasonous forces. In the meantime, engege with the youth and educate them with our national spirit. Bear in mind that even those young graduates of the best universities in the world who lack the sense of homeland in their heart and mind, who lack sense of national dignity - are completely useless in our national struggle.
We absolutely must re-emerge again as a viable nation. The path, that I am suggesting here to achieve this goal, has been tested by many nations who succeeded in creating great states. Relentless struggle and hard work – this is the formula, that has proven to be most viable throughout human history. We cannot start this journey in pursuit of the stated goal with laziness, arrogance, despair or vainglory. These are pernicious sins.
It’s crucial that we declare the following guidelines for our future work:
- Zero hopelessness, since in the present situation that would be a sin not only against the God, but also our homeland;
- Zero tolerance towards the treasonous junta, since there is no single common pathway that we may share with those who brought Armenia and Artsakh to this sorry state and those who ruined our national army;
- Zero ambition, since for the sake of our homeland every one of us must absolutely put aside their personal ambitions, sympathies or the lack thereof.
Fellow Armenians,
I know it is not easy for you to bear this dishonor. As a nation we are not tailored to tolerate dishonor at any rate. And today my comrades in arms and I, the Republican party of Armenia are here to tell you that we are by your side, we are your sons and daughters, your soldiers and your diplomats – and we are ready to endure everything for the sake of restoring your honor and dignity.
May God protect our people and support our efforts in the name of our homeland.
I thank you for your attention.