The Armenian government has published Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's speech in parliament regarding the discussion of the government's program for 2026-2031:
Esteemed President of the National Assembly,
Esteemed Vice Presidents,
Esteemed Deputies,
Esteemed Members of the Government,
Dear People,
On June 7, 2026, the people of the Republic of Armenia voted in favor of the ideology of Real Armenia. The results of this election are historic as they redefine the functional significance of the Republic of Armenia. In 1990, the philosophy underlying the declaration of independence of the Republic of Armenia was that the state is necessary for restoring historical justice, and this perception was expressed in the Karabakh movement.
The ideology of Real Armenia states that the sole functional significance of the Republic of Armenia is to ensure peace, freedom, security, and prosperity for its citizens in its internationally recognized territory of 29,743 square kilometers, to create an environment for the happiness of citizens, as is commonly said in modern life — to create an ecosystem, to preserve and develop the identity of the people. It is for such a state and vision that the citizens of the Republic of Armenia voted on June 7, 2026, and this vision is what we call the Fourth Republic.
Thus, we can state that the Fourth Republic is established, the Fourth Republic is a reality. That the state of peaceful life is the expectation of our people becomes evident to me through a retrospective analysis of the history of the Third Republic. In 2021, for example, at a time when the opposition was developing the thesis that "the defeated government must leave," the people entrusted their vote to the Civil Contract party. Meanwhile, since 1994, none of the former presidents who presented themselves as victorious leaders in the war have received a mandate of trust from the people in elections and have had to seize power through fraud, the use of force, and/or killings and terrorism. Such an attempt culminated in the revolution of 2018. All this is a sign that our people realized much earlier that the Karabakh conflict is a trap, and without confronting this fact, it is impossible to have a truly independent state where one can live freely, safely, and prosperously.
However, as has often happened in our history, these aspirations of the people have not received political formulation, because our historical tradition is to impose ideas on the people from the spiritual political elite, rather than to extract political ideas and views from the desires and aspirations of the people. And this tradition continued until the 2018 popular, non-violent, velvet revolution. The key result of the revolution was supposed to be that the influence of the people on the formation of policies and political concepts would increase. This phenomenon first found intuitive expressions, then became more and more stable and systematic, and what is happening here today is precisely its expression.
Therefore, it is a great honor for me to present the government's program for 2026-2031 from the National Assembly, with which we are entering the Fourth Republic. It is a great honor for me to present the government program, which is based on the ideology of Real Armenia. It is a great honor for me to reaffirm my, the government's, and the ruling coalition's commitment to the agenda of the 2018 People's non-violent velvet revolution, which should be completed in 2026-2031.
What is the agenda of the revolution? Establishing an environment of justice, excluding impunity and oligarchy, returning illegally acquired property to the state and the people, uncovering crimes with broad public resonance and holding the guilty accountable, establishing a state free from corruption, developing democratic institutions, transparent and participatory governance. Significant developments have taken place in Armenia in all these directions since 2018, but nevertheless, this agenda has remained unfinished for two main reasons.
One reason is that since the COVID-19 pandemic, the revolutionary team that took over the governance of Armenia has had to engage in crisis management, and much of its attention and energy has been focused on crisis agendas. The second, no less important reason is the external and internal influences on our country's institutions and their activities. But despite all this, we have been able to implement institutional reforms that give confidence that ultimately the unfinished agenda of the revolution will be completed, because the implementation of this agenda is proceeding in full volume, it is happening today.
The system for returning illegally acquired property is already fully operational. Alongside the system of protection of state and community interests, property and monetary assets worth about 304 billion 182 million drams have already been returned to the state. In addition, the Republic of Armenia has stakes in the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, the Amulsar project, and Viva Armenia. Thousands of hectares of land that were illegally privatized de jure or de facto have been returned to communities and the government, including through negotiations. Not to mention that the revenues of the state budget of the Republic of Armenia have more than doubled in 2025 compared to 2017, and in these revenues, apart from economic growth, a significant role is played by the reduction of the shadow economy, where huge amounts of money that were generated before the revolution flowed into the pockets of well-known people instead of the state budget.
The government's program for 2026-2031 states the imperative of returning to the state illegally acquired property worth about 2 billion dollars by 2031, and the processes taking place around the Electric Networks of Armenia, Ararat Cement, and the Tsaghkadzor cable car give confidence that this issue will ultimately be resolved, encompassing a larger scope of illegally acquired property.
