May 9 as a symbol of national will and self-defense
09.05
2026
May 9 in the history of the Armenian people is not merely a day of remembrance for victories of the past. It is a symbol of national will, self-defense, and devotion to the homeland. The liberation of Shushi, our people’s participation and victory in the Great Patriotic War, and the years of defending Artsakh all share one common thread: the Armenian people won whenever they possessed a national purpose, a state-centered mindset, and the determination to live freely on their own land.
Today, however, the meaning of the Triple Holiday has been distorted. Artsakh is occupied, Armenian statehood faces grave security, demographic, and political threats, while the national interest is often replaced by systematic efforts to cultivate and impose a defeatist mentality, erase historical memory, misinterpret the existential challenges of the present, and drive a destructive retreat from national identity.
Yet even under these conditions, May 9 has not lost its significance. It reminds us that victory is not merely a military outcome. Above all, victory is national consciousness, a sense of state purpose, and the ideological and institutional alignment of the state. Victory is faithfulness to one’s own history, the will and effort to preserve statehood, responsibility toward the idea of the homeland, the commitment to pass on a free and genuinely independent state to future generations, and the historic duty to reclaim just and inalienable national rights that have been taken away.
Throughout history, the Armenian people have repeatedly faced existential dangers, yet they have endured because they possessed the strength to recover. The pillars of that strength have been a national value system rooted in universal human ideals, collective memory and determination, and unconditional devotion to the native land.
For us, May 9 should become not only a day of remembering the past, but also a day for rebuilding national victories. The aspiration to live free and independent, devotion to the homeland, and the idea of having a national state have always been — and remain — the central goals of the Armenian people’s existence.
Glory to all those who fought for the homeland. And responsibility to all of us, so that the Armenian people may once again become the masters of their own history and their own state.
