Armenia must reap lessons from the Battle of Sardarapat and the First Republic of Armenia, Minister of Education and Science said.

“We must maintain the Third Republic as the heart of statehood on the Armenian Highland,” Armen Ashotyan said.

The Minister stressed the need for Armenians to “always be united, love the country and the nation.”

“Sometimes it is more difficult to be a hero in peace than at war,” he said.

The Battle of Sardarapat that took place from May 21–29, 1918. Sardarapat was only 40 kilometers west of the city of Yerevan and the battle is seen as not only stopping the Ottoman advance into the rest of Armenia but also preventing the complete destruction of the Armenian nation.

The Democratic Republic of Armenia, also known as the First Republic of Armenia, was proclaimed on May 28, 1918, after the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. Its army continued to fight on the Allied side south of the Caucasus until the Ottoman Empire surrendered in October 1918. The independent republic endured from May 1918 to December 1920.