Today, at Sardarapat Memorial President Serzh Sargsyan took part in a celebration devoted to Republic Day together with the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I, the Catholicos Patriarch of the House of Cilicia Nerses Petros XIX, the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan and Armenian high-ranking state officials. The Armenian President laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Battle of Sardarapat and paid tribute. During the celebration, the president accepted the procession of the Orchestra of Honor and watched a cultural performance given on the occasion of the event.
After the celebration, Serzh Sargsyan visited Sardarapat’s National Museum of the Armenian Ethnography and the History of Liberation Struggle where an award giving ceremony devoted to Republic Day took place.
By presidential decrees, on the occasion of Republic Day people representing the areas of science, education, economy, health service, culture, art, sports, as well as a number of Diaspora representatives and a group of servicemen were conferred state awards and titles. Serzh Sargsyan congratulated the awardees on the occasion of Republic Day and upon receiving high state awards and titles and handed the awards to the participants.
“This ceremony which takes place in Sardarapat is of great importance for us. By this, we highlight the ties between our various generations and their succession. By this, we emphasize that at the end of the day we follow the same orbit. It is the Armenian statehood, its history and present. All of us, servicemen, teachers, scientists, artists, doctors, follow the same orbit which is called the Republic of Armenia.
Dear awardees, I wish you with your deeds and behavior to deserve the feat our ancestors accomplished in this holy place. I would like to thank you for your patience and say that we purposefully invited more people because I think that indeed, this is a unique place and a unique merit to be awarded here. I once again congratulate you on being awarded,” said the president.
In Sardarapat, Serzh Sargsyan also sent a congratulatory message on the occasion of Republic Day.
Congratulatory message by President Serzh Sargsyan on Republic Day
Dear compatriots,
I congratulate us all on the occasion of Republic Day.
On May 28 of 1918, our destiny gave us a historic opportunity to restore Armenia’s independence. The revolutionary turmoil in Russia, the events of World War I and other inopportune circumstances had created a situation when we had to stand alone against numerous challenges. The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire had been in progress, and the Russian-Turkish front had been transformed into an Armenian-Turkish front.
It was exactly at this moment and in this situation that a miracle happened to us which is in other words called a feat. That feat was accomplished by a whole generation of Armenians, Armenian warriors, political figures, common people, clergymen, intellectuals. They made May 28, unexpected, unplanned, unprepared and tragic in essence, a day of national awakening. It was called to make Armenia-the valley of wars and genocide, starvation and epidemics, migration and despair- a free, independent, well-organized and democratic country.
Today we are standing in Sardarapat and bow to the memory of the martyrs who defended Armenia’s last piece of land and saved the last debris of Armenians. If the Armenians had lost the heroic battles of May, especially that of Sardarapat, the Turkish army would have freely marched into Echmiadzin and Yerevan. After all, if one Armenian historian had been found he could have easily proved that the Armenians had not had any chance to win. We managed to succeed here in the face of all the facts and the whole reality which acted against us. We ourselves earned the right to live and hold a firm place in the international political arena. This was accomplished by the most heroic and at the same time the most tragic Armenian generation of all times. Eternal glory and esteem to the shining memory of all the well-known and anonymous heroes.
I once again congratulate us all on the occasion of the victories of May and Republic Day. This is a great day, a day of resurrection and revival. I wish all of us a festive mood and a peaceful heaven.
