The Armenian nation has had periods of ups and downs during its millennial history. The Armenian is a nation formed in the cradle of civilization and acquired its own linguistic thinking, which has a very large contribution to the system of values of world culture and continues to this day its mission, which was given to it from above by fate or, most likely, providence.

Digging every inch of the Armenian plateau to a depth of one meter reveals treasures of cultural heritage stretching from Aratta to the present day. The Armenian people have preserved all this and have retained great efforts and, unfortunately, often at the cost of human losses. During its thousand-year history, it has never despaired and brought its people to the twentieth century of our era.The Armenian nation has had periods of ups and downs during its millennial history.

    World history is also full of ups and downs, and numerous cultural layers and their carriers were constantly created and disappeared along the way. The Armenian people were formed on the territory called the Armenian Highlands, where, according to myths, there was a paradise, where a human being was formed. That is why the cradle of the Armenians is still a bone of contention for peoples who do not have their own history and culture.

    For centuries, they wanted to destroy or seize the history and rich culture of the Armenian people. They are also not stunned by the idea of the physical extermination of Armenians, and so far artificially created state units formed on previously nomadic lands, and now occupied by other lands and conditioned by geopolitical motives, continue their Armenian-hating policy.

    The falsification of history and the acquisition of foreign culture are temporary. The truth is revealed sooner or later.

The Armenian people silently and quietly did not wait for the judgment of history. He fought with dignity for his rights and does not stop doing it today. We know that everything that belonged to us and belongs to us and can never be someone else’s. There is the state of Armenia and the Armenian people, who have kept the flag of their statehood high, continue to raise the issue of the liberation of their occupied homeland and demands.

    During the First World War of 1916, the Eastern Legion was created by France, which participated in the liberation of the countries of the Middle East -Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Armenian Cilicia:

On February 1, 1919, the Armenian Legion was created, which was in Moscow until 1920 and on August 4 Cilicia was completely liberated from the Turks and the Armenians declared Cilicia’s independence under the mandate of France. Cilicia, which gained independence, had governing bodies of autonomy, which were headed by Mihran Tamatyan.

The Armenian Legion, and before that Eastern, joined the ranks of those who escaped from the Turkish pogroms and more than 5,000 Armenians from all over the world, who, even leaving their prosperous lives and high social status, devoted themselves to the holy cause of the liberation of the Motherland.

In 1920, on July 3, after the liberation of Cilicia, the Armenian Legion was disbanded by the French, and then Cilicia was transferred to Turkey on October 20, 1921.

Pogos Nubar Pasha and a number of other national figures who made a great contribution to all this, as well as former devotees, were engaged in the restoration of Armenian statehood, as a result of which Armenia got international recognition. The  Armenian people could not sit quietly and wait for strangers to solve their problems instead of them. The Nemesis program was created, which stated that nothing was forgotten and everyone would answer. These actions continued until the first half of the XX century.

After the Second World War, when the issue of a new political division of the world became relevant again, the Armenian people realized that it would be formed at the expense of the territories of the State of Armenia and a new stage of the liberation struggle began. Gurgen Yanikyan, who lost his family during the Turkish pogroms, decided to declare the rights and demands of the Armenians. After his action, he appealed from prison to the national parties and all Armenians with an appeal to continue the work he had begun. Only a group of young Armenians responded to him, who visited him in prison and then announced the creation of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA).

In fact, ASALA, like the Armed Forces of Western Armenia, continues the work of the Armenian Legion, which did not have time to complete the liberation of complete Armenia.

In 1920, the Western Republic of Armenia, which is a continuation of the de facto and de jure recognized state of Armenia, and today continues to remain faithful to the values of Nubar Pasha and the state created by those devoted to the Motherland, and publicly declares that strangers cannot decide the fate of an entire people instead of us, and even more so without us, who already realize their place and role in the development of world culture and the solution of geopolitical issues and the formation of a new political map.

In the twenty-first century, not only the natural and climatic conditions changed, but also the course of life changed. Life began to take a different turn. Humanity is changing its value system, revising stereotypes, and getting rid of false information. They begin to make independent judgments and analyses, to look for their place in geopolitical processes, to return to their roots and rank and to understand that their direct participation in current processes is a necessity. We must be able to correctly assess and analyze the rapidly developing processes in order not to get out of the process of disposing of our own destiny.

Being well aware of all this, Western Armenia, continuing the work of its predecessors, clearly realizes that it has assumed a huge responsibility to represent the cause of its ancestors and bring it to its shelter.

We are pleased to note that Western Armenia has already adopted its state institutions, systems, and connections with tens of millions of Armenians, who, regardless of whether they are Christians or other faiths, or speak foreign languages, or have just returned to their roots, are still Armenians and are citizens of Western Armenia and take an active part in state-building.

We kindly welcome all those peoples who, by the will of fate, found themselves in the Armenian Highlands and live in Western Armenia.

Concluding my speech, I would like to once again congratulate all of us on today’s council – the creation of the Armenian Legion and wish us all vigilance, a sense of great responsibility for the future of the Motherland and the will and strength to get involved in this work.