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The electoral campaign, which launched against a backdrop of regular encroachments on Armenia’s state borders, must consolidate all patriotic individuals and organizations in the struggle against both the external enemy and the forces serving its interests, third President of Armenia, Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Chairman Serzh Sargsyan said on Saturday.

He made the remarks at a ceremony of signing a memorandum on the formation of an electoral alliance with the opposition Homeland Party led by Artur Vanetsyan, a former chief of Armenia’s National Security Service.

In Sargsyan’s words, as a result of a sober assessment of the situation, the two political forces decided to join efforts based on common approaches and common concerns as to the ways of overcoming Armenia’s internal and external challenges, as well as on their determination to “stand firm” in defense of national values.

“Being the first socio-political organization registered in independent Armenia, a political organization with long experience in matters of state-building, the Republican Party of Armenia combines its experience, knowledge and capabilities, conservative ideology with modern, fresh approaches and the bold initiatives launched by the Homeland Party, confident that as headed by its young but well-established leader, Artur Vanetsyan, the Homeland Party will become a supporter and pioneer on the way to building a strong and modern state with the Republicans,” the ex-president said.

“Today, a significant part of our people in Artsakh and Armenia wakes up with a feeling of uncertainty, fears of imminent danger, skepticism about the future, despair and apathy, and some with a complete loss of perception of reality, indifference or inferiority complex of a defeated people.

“In just three years of being in office, the incompetent authorities have led to this mentality and mindset, and it will take a lot of effort to get people out of it. Of course, this is not the work of one or even two political forces. This will call for consolidation of all healthy political forces, which in the meantime will have to fight side by side against the government of evil forces, and then consolidate everyone’s professional, intellectual, organizational and other abilities and resources to restore confidence in our statehood and a strong hope for tomorrow.

“We once brought victory to our people; the Armenians walked proudly both at home and abroad as the children of a victorious nation. We will return that pride. Nothing is impossible. We proved it until April 23 2018, including in the first Artsakh war in April 2016,” Sargsyan said.

He noted nowadays there is too much talk about political ambitions. “Our human potential and political mind is enough to talk about our own ambitions. However, in the classical sense, we do not want to show narrow party ambitions, as the purpose of forming an alliance is not at all to get extra parliamentary seats. We have a clear mission, together with other political forces in the political field, namely to remove the capitulators from power,” the RPA leader said

“There are many meritorious people in our alliance; we are ready to cooperate with all dignified individuals, public and political organizations for the sake of our statehood, the future of our children, and believe me, there are many of them.

“We will oust them; we will demand honor from the capitulators who discredited our state, knelt down and humiliated us in front of the enemy; we will halt the decline of the state, we will get out of this situation, we will all start a dignified process together.”

Serzh Sargsyan also responded to the questions about how the RPA can form an alliance with Vanetsyan who used to be an “advocate of persecutions” in his capacity of National Security Service director.

“I simply answer that at some point Artur Vanetsyan realized the real essence of rookie wolves. He stopped halfway and called on the others to do so.

“Unfortunately, they did not listen to him. To be honest, there is hardly anyone who suffered more from persecution than my family and I did. However, personal feelings, ambitions and political conjuncture are transient, inferior to the mission that every conscious Armenian figure has in the event of a crisis in our country,” Sargsyan said.

He noted that Family Day is being marked both in Armenia and in other UN member states today.

“As a man, who has faced the blows of fate with honor, I advise everyone to keep your family strong with love and solidarity, which is the real wealth not only for you, but also for our country. The family is also the basis of society for our national conservative party, the Republican Party.

"There should not have been 5,000 new graves in Armenia, but 5,000 new weddings, baptisms and births. The tricolor was to be waved not at the graves of our heroes, but at the victorious parades of the Armenian army. Our tears should have been born out of emotion, not tragedy. And we all owe those bright boys, their families and the nation in general dignity, hope, peace and security, prosperity and homeland.

“A living truth is that when you do not value what you have, you lose it very quickly. The latest developments came as a reminder of it as our people suffered the loss of their sons in a portion of our homeland.

“I emphasize once again: there will be no return to the past. But today I would like to state the following: “Those who do not confess their past mistakes do not have courage, while those who do not appreciate the achievements of the past do not have honesty.” Salute of honor and respect!” Sargsyan said.