Narek Karapetyan outlines three main challenges facing Armenia in his  first address to 9th Parliament 

ArmInfo.On August 3, during his first speech at the 9th Parliament, Narek Karapetyan, head of the Strong Armenia faction, outlined three main challenges facing the country.

He noted that the country has gone through a rather difficult period  over the past eight years. "We have seen several wars, faced social  tensions, and significant economic stress. Yes, for the first time in  700 years, Armenians are determining their future. However,  we face  the same problems, only within a different historical period,"  Karapetyan noted.

The first challenge facing the country, as the faction leader  clarified, is the peace agreement with Azerbaijan. According to  Karapetyan, this document is of significant importance for Armenia,  especially in the context of the country's development and the return  of Armenian prisoners of war held in Baku. "This issue is one of the  most important. And we must be able to resolve it in parallel with  another very important issue: we must prevent Azerbaijan from gaining  the opportunity, within the framework of a peace treaty, to create  conditions under which they will be able to establish a demographic  presence in the country.  Therefore, we propose adopting the  'Anti-Safarov Law,' which will prohibit Azerbaijanis from staying in  the country for more than 10 days, or from acquiring property or  land," the politician stated.

The second challenge facing the country, according to him, is the  deterioration of Armenia's relations with its main economic ally  (Russia - ed.). He expressed confidence that these relations could  deteriorate further by the end of the year. "We believe that Armenian  political thought can improve these relations. There have been more  tense periods between the countries, but they were resolved through  proper diplomacy," the faction leader noted. As Karapetyan poined  out, the rural debt burden has reached three times the previous level  over the past eight years. He stated that agriculture is at the same  level as last year, when a decline was recorded. "This means that,  given the same agricultural turnover, rural residents have three  times the amount of loans. And the closure of markets in countries  that are important to us could lead to farmer bankruptcy. This issue  must be resolved," the politician emphasized.

He cited the opening of the border with Turkey as a third challenge  and recalled that historically, the border was closed at the  initiative of the Turkish side. "The border was closed due to the  active actions of the Armenian Armed Forces and their successes in  our second homeland (Artsakh - ed.). 

Today,  relations with Turkey is possible without consigning to  oblivion the memory of our numerous compatriots (Artsakh residents -  ed.). Because this issue has been resolved, and unfortunately, it was  resolved with the blood. Shedding. Our current task is to ensure that  this border remains open, but not at the expense of recognizing the  Armenian Genocide. This is important, because it is this idea that  unites us with the Diaspora. Moreover, it guarantees that such a  thing will not happen again," Karapetyan explained.

He noted that it is also important to work with the future  generation. "They must understand what we have sacrificed to reach  this point. And at what price we got our little Armenia. That this is  the result of the choice of our ancestors, who had no intention of  abandoning their language and faith," Karapetyan concluded.