President Serzh Sarkisian stressed the role of women in Armenia’s public and political life as he issued a congratulatory message on March 8, which is marked as Women’s Day in the former Soviet country.
“There is no sphere or field of activity in our country where we could not feel women’s favorable presence and active participation. You are teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs and public figures, mothers of soldiers and servicewomen. On behalf of our entire society, I thank you and bow before you,” Sarkisian said in his message published on his official website.
“Dear women, your professional achievements and progress, as well as your public and political activities are of exceptional importance for Armenia’s development and future. Your involvement is indispensable in the process of building a more equitable and free society and a more powerful and prosperous country.”
Handing awards to a group of women on the eve of the holiday, President Sarkisian also urged Armenian women to be more active in politics.
“I am deeply convinced that every year women should take part in local or State elections, women should participate in the elections every time, and their role must certainly increase. But there is one circumstance here: women themselves should want it. In many cases women do not want to be actively involved in public and political life. It may be the fault of the whole society or the fault of men. Nevertheless, I have always called for and urged women to actively participate in our country’s building. It is very important,” he said.
Sarkisian added, however, that Armenia is “on the right path” in this sense. “Every year our women are represented at all levels of government and there is no sphere in the country where women are not represented,” the Armenian president emphasized.
In 1994, three years after Armenia gained independence, the country’s legislature set the date for Motherhood and Beauty Day at April 7. Eventually, however, the Soviet-era holiday, March 8, that Armenians continued to mark unofficially was reinstated as a public holiday. For years now the period between March 8 and April 7 has unofficially been observed in Armenia as a women’s month.
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