There is no Mount Ararat in Armenia – Nikol Pashinyan

For the first time, Armenian citizens are not leaving the country, they are returning, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a conversation with reporters, noting that his leadership has brought Armenia to this point.

“We have reached a stage where tens of thousands of citizens receive healthcare services funded by the state budget. We have brought Armenia to a state of peace and full independence,” he added.

When asked, “Ararat or Aragats?”, Pashinyan reframed the question as “state or non-state?”

“The state has internationally recognized territory, and within the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia there is Ararat – the enlarged community of Ararat and the Ararat region – but Mount Ararat itself is not in Armenia. If this hasn’t been clear before, it shows one thing: until recently, the distinction between state and non-state was not fully recognized. We have now implemented that distinction, because we are a state,” he explained.