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To choose a ballot means to choose who and how is going to solve our number one issue – the Nagorno Karabakh problem, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated during the remarks at the event concluding the pre-election campaign at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex on Friday. 

Below is the full speech of the President made during the event:

“Compatriots,

Yesterday we buried Artak Rafaelian – he was a soldier of the Defense Army and he was twenty years old. The treacherous shot of the enemy found him at his post where he was guarding his share of the Fatherland border.
Yesterday the soul of the Armenian soldier, our son, who fell fulfilling his mission, joined the eternity. Yesterday again all those who understand were crying out silently: the war is not over, the damned killing machine has not stopped yet, and we still have many things to do. Yes, we have many things to do. We have to bring to its ultimate end what we have started.
Armenia is not a victim for a long time now, and will not be. We are not going to wait the God’s judgement. Those who don’t understand it will be punished by the hand of the Armenia warriors on the battlefield, just like before. On this, we stand united.
The sea of our unity has forever embraced the pain and pride of Artak Rafayelian and other boys and they will nourish our and next generations’ soul and mind, spirit and unity, pain and pride. Our souls and our hearts, our pain and our pride from now on will be their home, by the power of Almighty God.
We all have to avenge. We will avenge for our fallen lions by creating a better state, more advanced, better protected, more prosperous. Civilized nations do not avenge with arms. They use arms for smart defense; they avenge by becoming stronger and better. This is the only path leading to victory.

Dear Compatriots,
On April 2, we will pay tribute and pray at the graves of our sons who fell one year ago while throwing back the large-scale Azeri offensive. On April 2, we, as citizens of the Republic of Armenia, will also go to the electoral precincts to decide on the development path our country will take for the next five years. This coincidence is as much accidental as it is not. Each of us will choose a ballot, and it is critically important that while making that choice we understand that the ballot is also a key, a key to new weaponry and new military equipment, new defense structures and efficient troop deployment plans, a key to enforcing peace and consistent amplification of the security of the soldiers on the border.
To choose a ballot means to choose who and how is going to solve our number one issue – the Nagorno Karabakh problem. Who are the people, who will through peaceful negotiations achieve the goal making the ultimate status of Nagorno Karabakh to be decided by the people of Artsakh. This standpoint will not change, ever. Who are the people who will be able to steadfastly support all efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at the fair resolution through the peace negotiations. And finally, when choosing a ballot, it is necessary to certainly vote for living well but staying mindful that living well implies first of all the right to be protected, the right to live, otherwise it would be senseless to speak of living well vision if there is no idea how to defend the right of life, how to hold back the hand which is ready to crash that right.

Dear Compatriots,

Based on the nature of this event, I was supposed to urge you at this moment to vote for the Republican Party of Armenia. However, I will not. I will say choose whomever you want but remember that living well is possible only through a lasting and diligent work. I will say choose whomever you want but remember the mothers who have sent their sons to the Army, and whose each heartbeat is counting the seconds of their sons’ safe duty. Remember the kids who each morning put their school bags on their backs and rush to the school targeted by the snipers of the enemy. They trust in the combat readiness of the troops at the border.  Remember our victorious generals and officers who buried with their own hands their brothers and friends who fell in the Artsakh Liberation War, their cold and tearless gazes whose hardened hearts are warmed up with the new martial achievements of the soldiers under their command.
Remember these images and vote on April 2 for whomever you want.
Thank you.”