YEREVAN, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Armenia on Thursday celebrated its Independence Day, the country's biggest public holiday of the year.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Yerablur Military Pantheon in the capital of Yerevan and paid homage to those who sacrificed their lives to protect the sovereignty and independence of the country.
In a statement, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan congratulated Armenians on the holiday and described the "establishment of a modern and progressive state as the current imperative" of the country.
On Sept. 21, 1991, Armenians went to the polls to decide whether or not to create an independent state of their own, and 99.51 percent of them answered yes.
On its path to independence, Armenia was the only former Soviet republic to have followed specific Soviet laws and regulations to achieve independence through a nationwide referendum.
The former Soviet nation is undergoing transition to a parliamentary form of governance. The process will be complete upon the end of Sargsyan's second and final term in April 2018.