One hundred and five years ago, the First was proclaimed.

Honor and glory to its founders, guardians and protectors, all devoted heirs—generation after generation. Without it, fragile and deficient but heroic, long-suffering but enlightened, unprepared for the incessant series of blows from inside and out but still strong in spirit, we would not have had  our twin worlds of the Republic of Armenia and our standard-bearer Artsakh—we ourselves would not have existed  even on this last state frontline of hope representing a sliver of our larger Homeland.

Today we are still in the legacy of the First and on the threshold of the Last.

For their transient, deceitful, self-taken power they try to pit the real Armenia against the «illusory» one, Aragats against Ararat, the past against the present, the material world against the  spiritual one, Shushi and Van against their «villas» in Yerevan, the State against the Motherland, the ultimatums bridging the historiography of Kazim Karabekir and Ilham Aliyev against the value and rights of the Armenian people and the civilization of Armenia.

There is no contradiction in all these. This is our predestined inheritance.

Here the bell is ringing daily for 105 years in a row: No to the Pash and his ilk.

And yes to our State, with its powerful Fatherland foundation, yes to our entire nation and people, no matter how hard the savior-divider and war criminal try to separate them from each other.

During these fateful days of the May holiday, we come together and with our decisive-consistent-collective service, with our demeanor of belonging, we return to the inalienable right, grace, and dignity of our nation, rebuilding our wounded but resilient twin worlds.

Raffi K. Hovannisian
May 23, 2023
Yerevan