YEREVAN, 26 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. President of the Republic of Armenia, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan participated today in the solemn session of the advisory  board adjunct to the Minister of Defense and dedicated to the 23^rd anniversary of the formation of the Armenian Army at the administrative complex of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

Before moving on to the speeches, the participants of the session respected the memory of the heroes who died while courageously defending the homeland’s borders and all the soldiers and freedom fighters having sacrificed their lives during the years of the Artsakh war with a moment of silence.

President Serzh Sargsyan delivered opening remarks during the session devoted to the results of combat and mobilization, combat service, operative and combat readiness of forces and headquarters and the state of military discipline. As the Department of Public Relations and Mass Media of the Structure to the Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia reports to “Armenpress”, the President mentioned:

“Generals, officers!

Before moving on to the speeches, I would like to say a few words.

I would like to stat by saying that the beginning of the year was tense, and we witnessed several attacks of the opponent. We suffered painful losses for which we mourn, along with the families and relatives of all the boys who died. I don’t think anyone doubts that the Azerbaijanis are going to pay a high price for each of their lives. They have paid, are paying and will pay a high price.

The purpose of the opponent’s attacks is clear. The authorities of Azerbaijan don’t conceal the fact that they are always trying to create tension around us through the combination of political and military resources. That is simply a policy of blackmail, and it is mainly addressed to not only Armenia, but also the international community. After having perfectly failed in the negotiations with the absurd working style of “having everything for myself”, the official Baku is trying to show everyone what it can do, if its whims are not fulfilled, without understanding and without seriously analyzing the horrible consequences that all this can have on Azerbaijan. Moreover, every time Armenia faces any issue or when a painful event has taken place in the country, Azerbaijan think it’s time to shine and immediately shows itself on the frontline.

It’s all really in vain. We saw their speeches and “appetite” more or less in more difficult conditions 25 years ago. I’m certain that most of the people gathered in this hall will remember how, in the early 1990s, they were making threatening statements and how they were threatening to wave the Azerbaijani national flag in Stepanakert. One of them had lost himself to the extent that he was even talking about washing his feet in Lake Sevan. After the liberation of Shushi, every week the Azerbaijanis would say that soon they would be drinking tea in Shushi. We’ve seen all that. We haven’t made threatening statements, but we have imposed our superiority on the battlefield. Today, we’re much stronger. We’re strong as ever.

We don’t have a reason to provoke a war. We don’t provoke incidents. You know that very well. We don’t attack. We don’t need to at all.

However, there has been and there will be compensation after any attack against us. Until recently, the responses have been symmetric in form and asymmetric, causing more casualties.

From now on, there may be actions for reparations that will be asymmetric in form. The hotheads will be in for several surprises. Moreover, in case of greater threats on our borders and along the Line of Contact, we reserve ourselves the right to carry out preventive strikes.

Nobody should think that we’re going to sit and wait until the disaster hits home. It is our duty to be relentless against the ones organizing a disaster for us. I repeat-the opponent’s adventurism will make us take the path to suffering severe losses.

We understand that the Azerbaijani authorities are ready to spare nothing and send hundreds of thousands of their citizens to die only to stay in power, but we can’t let that happen at the price of our citizens and soldiers. That can’t happen at our expense.

We’re still convinced that the right thing to do is to make an agreement, to continue the negotiations and reach agreements based on the well-known principles, and only by maintaining the ceasefire regime and building bridges of confidence will it be possible to do that. Nobody has seen or will see any good by burning bridges.

Once again, I declare to everyone: We are ready for the good and the bad. I have all the possible options in front of me.

We can and must negotiate over peace with a sound partner.

As to the unsound opponent, we’re obliged to and definitely will impose peace.

That’s all. Now, let’s move on to the items on the agenda.”