Pashinyan highlights defense overhaul, new doctrine at Republic Day parade

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the ongoing military reforms and the transformation of the armed forces in his speech before the Republic Day military parade began on Thursday in Yerevan. The event was attended by President Vahagn Khachaturyan, other top government officials and military officers, foreign ambassadors, as well as members of the public.

Pashinyan said that the military parade is a report to citizens on reforms.

The Prime Minister highlighted the transformation of the Armenian Armed Forces, including new doctrine, equipment, training systems, and social guarantees for servicemembers. He emphasized that the army’s mission is strictly the defense of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory, alongside participation in peacekeeping missions.

“This Republic Day in 2026 is being marked in a completely new historical context. After nearly 35 years of conflict, peace has been established between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Peace is what the First Republic of Armenia lacked in order to preserve and develop its independence, and the absence of peace became the key reason why the three countries of the South Caucasus, after declaring independence in 1918, successively lost that independence in 1920,” Pashinyan said.

He continued: “Historical memories about the fate of the First Republic of Armenia have played an important role in the peace-building process, and today we are overcoming the complex of the ‘temporariness of the state’ inherited from the First Republic period, adopting an agenda of state’s eternity, guided by the logic that the Republic of Armenia must exist forever. This means that in all situations we must remain focused on the interests of the state, when the state and its interests its security, freedom, and prosperity become the key point of reference for actions and decisions, and the state, in turn, becomes an instrument for ensuring the security, freedom, and prosperity of its citizens. This concept of the rise of the state guides us, and we are following this path.

The Republic of Armenia is following this path, and the established peace, its further institutionalization, the development and strengthening of the state’s legal foundations, transforming Armenia from a deadlock of conflict into a Crossroads of Peace including through the implementation of the TRIPP project as well as ensuring the security, freedom, and prosperity of its citizens, are our strategic priorities.

Education, which we have declared a “strategy of strategies,” is of crucial importance for the realization of these goals. Deepening our understanding of the state also leads us to the conclusion that in conditions of peace, the most important state institution is the army, and today the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia are not a factor of war, but a factor of peace, because a country without a capable and strong army can become an attractive target for aggression. We cannot allow ourselves to be in such a situation, and today it is our honor, on the occasion of the 2026 Republic Day, to present to the people of the Republic of Armenia the results we have achieved since 2022.

Today we present to you the new Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia—equipped with new weaponry, new uniforms, and a new doctrine. The core of this doctrine is the following: the army’s sole mission is to defend the internationally recognized sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, and our army should not be used outside Armenia’s internationally recognized territory, except for peacekeeping missions carried out on the basis of international treaties.

It is this approach that has made it possible for the Republic of Armenia to have what you will see today. Prior to 2022, international markets for weapons and military equipment were largely closed or difficult to access for the Republic of Armenia, as international partners refused to supply Armenia with arms, arguing that they were convinced Armenia would use them outside its internationally recognized territory.

And only after the agreements reached in Prague on October 6, 2022, when Armenia and Azerbaijan recognized each other’s territorial integrity based on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, did the international arms market open up for Armenia.

In today’s parade report, weaponry and military equipment produced by around seven countries will pass in formation, and this geography of military-technical cooperation is the result of policies based on the ideology of “Real Armenia.”

One of the key pillars of the parade report is the weaponry and military equipment produced in the Republic of Armenia, which is taking its first but confident steps toward securing a stable position in the international market.

Since 2022, the Government of the Republic of Armenia has invested around 170 billion drams in the military-industrial complex, and today we have results we can be proud of.

An important factor in strengthening the defense capability of the Republic of Armenia is also several dozen fortified regions, which are fortresses meeting the requirements of the 21st century along the state border of the Republic of Armenia and are engineering masterpieces.

Today, it is also a source of pride that the parade includes service members who have demonstrated their high combat readiness through voluntary certification, as well as participants of the Homeland Defender program, who are key contributors to the transition from a conscript to a professional army.

Dear compatriots,

The transformation of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia is proceeding at a rapid pace, and the system of social guarantees for servicemembers plays an essential role in this process.

Today in Armenia there are privates serving in our military receiving a salary of 700,000 drams, and this process of increasing remuneration through voluntary certification cycles will continue. Service members participating in the Homeland Defender program will also receive an additional 5 million drams as a bonus upon completing their five-year contract service.

Cadets of the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Academy, who currently receive a stipend of up to 175,000 drams during their studies, will, upon successfully graduating from the military educational institution and being commissioned as officers, receive government-issued housing purchase certificates calculated based on Yerevan prices. Thus, the housing problem of our officer corps, which has largely remained unresolved since the early 2000s, will receive a fundamental solution.

Very recently, the Cabinet adopted a decision to resolve the housing issues of around 2,850 families registered on the Ministry of Defense housing waiting list since the early 2000s within the next four years. The state program for providing mortgage loan support for serving personnel to acquire housing is also ongoing and will be expanded in the near future.

Dear people, state officials, today’s military parade is a report to the citizens on what the Government of the Republic of Armenia has done in recent years to strengthen Armenia’s defense capability. But this report is also addressed to our martyrs, through whose sacrifice and lives the Republic of Armenia is today more of a state than ever, more independent than ever, more sovereign than ever, and more secure than ever.

Let us honor the memory of all our martyrs with a moment of silence, as well as with artillery salutes,” he said, followed by cannon salute salvos in honor of the fallen servicemembers.

“Armenia has learned the lessons of history, Armenia has learned the lessons of military history, and today you see and will see the tangible result of all of this: the new Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, with new weaponry and equipment, new uniforms, a new doctrine, a new emblem, a new mindset, and enhanced combat readiness.

I would like to express my gratitude to all officials, servicemembers, private sector companies, and all our international partners who have contributed to the formation of our new army.

I would also like to thank all citizens working in Armenia, creating value, paying legally prescribed taxes, and demanding and receiving fiscal receipts, all those whose generated taxes allow the Republic of Armenia to afford a new, modern, capable, and strong army.

Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

I congratulate all of us on the occasion of Republic Day.

The Republic of Armenia must exist forever.

Glory to the martyrs, and long live the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan concluded.