Congratulatory message by President Armen Sarkissian on the occasion of Children’s Day.  (Official website of the RA President).

Today is International Day for Protection of Children.

Each child is a symbol and promise of the future – the family’s future, country’s future, army’s future, land’s future… Future starts tomorrow but it starts today with the cry of a newborn baby, delight of each parent, with a new citizen of the state.

Dear children, my little friends,

I know that today it is very difficult to stay home when the nature, backyard, and games call you out. I am thankful that you remain understanding and patient. Believe me that today’s difficulties and discomfort are necessary to make tomorrow a better day, to make it dreams’ day.

You have dreams which are not only yours but also your parents’. Together, we must make your dreams come true, so that your dreams turn into the reality.

Dear compatriots,

Through the kids, we rediscover the enormous world around us. It is a mosaic of big and small, colorful and multilayered worlds. Children’s world is the most colorful part of that mosaic which is being built thanks to children and with the participation of the adults. Let us not spare our efforts as a state and as citizens, as a family and parents, as authorities and a society. Let’s employ our heart and mind to build that world on a strong and unshakeable foundation, to make it beautiful and bright, full of hope and emotions.

But all efforts made for the sake of children and for the children will be wasted if we are not able to ensure first and foremost their peaceful childhood. Peace is not only blue skies. Peace is also the atmosphere in which love, tolerance, and solidarity reign for the children and for the adults alike, inside the family and among the strangers.

Today is the day for the protection of our future. Protection means also responsibility for the children’s today and tomorrow, for their liberties and rights, for their destiny.

Children should be in the center of our attention. Regardless of the position we hold and public status, we all have to manifest a daily and personal high responsibility. And in assuming an obligation – from an international document and ensuing laws to educational programs and textbooks, we have to be guided by the notions emanating first of all from the national system of values related to the family and children. In the implementation of the laws and documents, regulations should be found which will reflect our ideas related to the state, future and children and which will be in line with our national character.

Let us love and protect the children and their rights, and in their person – let us protect the tomorrow of our families, of our country, and of our society.