In the evening of July 7, in Tsakhkadzor President Sarkissian met with the participants of the Pan-Armenian Youth Gathering. The meeting started with the prayer offered by the His Holiness, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, Presidential press service reported.

The gathering, whose motto is “To Fatherland, to Holy Etchmiadzin”, is organized by the Catholicos of All Armenians in the framework of the program which declared 2018 the Year of Youth and is uniting 400 young people from Armenia, Artsakh and over twenty countries from all over the world.

Conversations with the participants of the gathering mainly pertained to national identity, Church and Christianity, and patriotism.

Speaking of the Armenian identity, President Sarkissian noted that the history of our people provides multiple episodes which fill us with pride, and the recent events in Armenia are one of them.

“There are but few nations and states in the world which have been able to carry out revolutionary changes without clashes and bloodshed; few are the nations which have been this much tolerant and reasonable. We have many reasons to be proud Armenians, and the recent events added another particle to our pride,” President Sarkissian added.

Speaking of the role of Christianity and the Church, the President of Armenia noted that every person is free to choose faith, but he also reminded that the Armenian Apostolic Church is not just church. “For seven hundred years, we have been living as proud Armenians because of the Armenian Apostolic Church; it was preserving and defending our statehood for centuries, passing from generation to generation our national heritage.”

Armen Sarkissian responded also to various questions of the participants of the gathering. The President of Armenia urged young Armenians from Spyurk to come to Armenia, dedicate themselves to the country and empower our Fatherland by preserving the national heritage.