On August 23, 1990, when the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was still active, the Supreme Council of Armenia adopted the Declaration of Independence of Armenia during its first sitting, laying the foundation for the establishment of Armenia’s independent statehood.

Hayern Aysor tried to touch upon the events that were taking place in parliament during those days. What interested us was the speech that then Member of Parliament and current Minister of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia Hranush Hakobyan gave on that day, and we will present excerpts from that speech.

During the first sitting of the Supreme Council, the deputies had only one desire, and that was to adopt the Declaration of Independence and lay the foundation for the establishment of an independent Armenia. This meant making the centuries-old dream of the Armenian nation come true. The time had come for the Armenians to have a free and independent homeland in the late 20^th century, and this was what Hranush Hakobyan emphasized in the beginning of her speech. “The phrase “politics is the art of possibilities” is definitely right. Therefore, our goal must be to establish an independent state, based on the current political, social and economic situation in the republic.”

Touching upon the Armenian Cause in her speech, the Member of Parliament suggested formulating the Armenian Cause in such a way that the issue of claims is mentioned in the Declaration. “We do not have the right to leave aside an integral part of our organism, that is, the Armenian Diaspora, which lives and survives with claims and with the Armenian Cause. In this sense, I think we need to find a flexible and diplomatic formulation that will provide the opportunity to not forget the issue of claims in the entire Declaration.”

When asked whose will the Declaration must express, MP Hranush Hakobyan stated that the Declaration had to express the will of the Armenian people, not the people of Armenia, meaning that there had to be a vision for solving the problems of national concern together. “I suggest replacing the phrase “expressing the will of the people of Armenia” in the first sentence of the preface (of the Declaration) with the phrase “expressing the will of the Armenian people”.

Democracy cannot develop without the adoption of universal values. Interestingly, the MP emphasized that “the Declaration must derive from the principle of giving preference to universal values”, suggesting that this be included in the Declaration.

At the time, the Supreme Council was representing the highest power of the Armenian State. Hranush Hakobyan stated the following in regard to this: “Only the Supreme Council of the Republic of Armenia is entitled to act on behalf of the people of Armenia.” Hranush Hakobyan went on to say the following: “The formation and distribution of forces must only be carried out upon the decision of the Supreme Council and must not be dependent on anyone.”

Talking about the most essential principle for creating a democratic society, the Member of Parliament emphasized the following: “The separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial powers lies at the core of the establishment of a democratic and legal social order.”

Touching upon the next principle, the deputy expressed her view on the need for a multi-party system and the activities of non-governmental organizations. “I fully support the idea of a multi-party system, but I suggest adding the word “organizations” after “political parties” because in our republic, as you know, more organizations are created than political parties.”

Twenty six years ago, then Deputy Hranush Hakobyan also expressed her concern about the Armenian language and said in her speech that the formulation for language needed to be made in the Declaration. “There must definitely be a formulation for the state language.”

Taking into consideration the situation where Armenia was in the complicated stage of eliminating the consequences of the devastating earthquake, where Artsakh was in a war to defend the right of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to self-determination and where 500,000 people had been displaced from Azerbaijan, Deputy Hranush Hakobyan expressed her opinion and said that there was a need to give political evaluations of the current situation and include them in the Declaration. “We also need to accept the peculiarity of our republic today as a basis, and that is the Karabakh issue, the earthquake zone and the displaced. These are serious political issues that need to be included in the Declaration.”