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It is necessary to touch not only upon the achieved results and problems in 2022, but also the future draft that the RA Government proposes to the citizens of the Republic of Armenia: the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the presentation of the report on the process and results of the implementation of the Government programme of the Republic of Armenia (2021-2026) for 2022 at the extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly convened on April 18 at the initiative of the NA deputies.

Presenting the report, the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted: “I want to talk about optimism, because any draft of the future cannot be implemented without a sufficient reserve of optimism. In these stormy times, is there a necessary reserve of optimism in the RA, not only to talk about the future, but also to design and implement that future?” the Prime Minister stated. He expressed confidence that, despite all the hardships and difficulties, there is necessary optimism to talk about the future, plan the future and build that future in the RA, and he is sure of it. But today, at this very moment, the construction process of around 55,000 apartments is taking place in the RA. This is about 6% of the ever-created housing stock of the Republic of Armenia, 12.2% of the housing stock in multi-apartment buildings. In the history of the Third Republic, housing construction has never had such volumes, and today, not only the traditionally rich, but also the middle class, who have the opportunity to work, create and see the results of their work due to the economic policy of the Government, are buying apartments.

Speaking about the volume of housing construction, the Prime Minister mentioned that tens of thousands of citizens of the Republic of Armenia are buying apartments, and thousands of investors are building apartments in the conditions of border instability, security vulnerability of Armenia, and the collapse of the world order. “What does this behavio u r of citizens mean? To my assessment, it means and can only mean one thing: people believed in the peace agenda of the Government, people believe that there will be peace and they will have the opportunity to live happily and to create in their homeland, otherwise it would not make sense to buy an apartment, moreover to build an apartment. People believe in the slogan of the ruling majority, there is future , ” the Prime Minister said.

Speaking about peace, the Prime Minister said that since Armenia has a problem with Georgia and Iran, not with regulating relations, but with deepening them, then peace means having regulated relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

As for how realistic and feasible it is, Nikol Pashinyan noticed that this issue has two sides. “First, since peace is not built alone, to what extent will the actions and policies of Azerbaijan be aimed at peace? Second, especially after the 44-day war, if compromises are reached at the political and diplomatic level, how acceptable will they be for the RA citizens, and how far will the citizens allow the practical implementation of sometimes painful solutions? But this is also our responsibility. And we must make the course of our thoughts and actions understandable to the citizens of Armenia. And when they understand it, they will also accept it,” the Prime Minister said.

According to him, the main objective of many powers is for the Government to lose the thread of conversation with citizens. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that this should not be allowed. “And when we explain to people house by house, village by village, district by district, city by city what happened and what is happening around our country, they will understand us. They understand us, otherwise we wouldn’t be here,” Nikol Pashinyan concluded.

The Prime Minister considered the greatest shortcoming and the greatest advantage of their power the fact that they are not ‘ruling, governing elite’ at all, they are average statistical citizens of the Republic of Armenia (RA), who received a governing mandate from the people.

Continuing the topic on peace, the Prime Minister underlined: “The peace is possible if we distinctly record in all international relations, not only for today, but for future that we recognize the 29.800 km² territory as Republic of Armenia, more concretely the territory of the Armenian SSR, where we gained independence. And we don’t have any territorial demand from any other country, and we will ever have.”

According to the Prime Minister, if we don’t record that idea, and we don’t make social-psychology of the public, nobody will let Armenia to develop and to strengthen. In the Q&A session, the MPs were interested in the vision of the Nagorno Karabakh (NK) conflict settlement by the Government programme, the execution of the right to the NK people’s self-determination, the NK status, the growth rates of the construction in the context of adequate development of the marzes in the marzes, the influence on external factors of the development of economy, the implementation of the social programmes, etc.

The Prime Minister touched upon the NK conflict process before the Madrid principles and after it. Nikol Pashinyan underscored that he expressed his positions since 2019, saying that the negotiator of NK issue should be the representative of the NK people, as the NK people do not vote in the RA parliamentary elections. “I don’t have a legitimate mandate to represent it, and those positions were continuously expressed,” the Head of the executive body said and added that unless the NK today’s status is not recorded, there will not be any word about future status.

Speaking about the security system and the steps being taken in strengthening the army, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the professionalism in this sphere, social guarantees, the governing model and armament problems.

Regarding the political aspects of the ‘fifth column,’ the RA Prime Minister noted that more than 53 persons are passing by the cases of high treason.