We Have the Most Powerful Weapon: Ourselves and Our Unity. Address by President Armen Sarkissian

President Armen Sarkissian has called on Armenian political parties and public figures to show unity in the face of an ongoing armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, both of which have claimed hundreds of human lives.

“Be united like our people is. Follow the example of our people,” Sarkissian said in his address on November 6.

The Armenian president said that unity was the most powerful weapon of Armenians that helped the newly independent nation prevail in the early 1990s when it had a ruined economy and was grappling with the consequences of a devastating 1988 earthquake in Spitak.

“Thirty years ago we had no strong economy, no roads, no fuel, we hadn’t enough weapons. But we won because we had the most powerful weapon, ourselves, our unity. Some people ask me today what the guarantee of our today’s victory is. And my answer hasn’t changed – it’s our unity,” he said.

Sarkissian said that besides the war in Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia is also combating another enemy – the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 in the South Caucasus country of some 3 million people to date.

“Victory over coronavirus also depends on us, on how united, organized and disciplined we are,” the president said.

Sarkissian, who chairs the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, also called on all businessmen, philanthropists and organizations in Armenia and its far-flung Diaspora to donate as much as possible to the charity.

“Making donations to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund you help families from Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh] who have taken refuge in Armenia, help solve the problems of refugees, help rebuild destroyed schools and houses,” Sarkisian said.

“We place our hope on ourselves and our true friends. We will be creating our victory together. God bless Artsakh, Armenia and our entire nation,” the Armenian president concluded.