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YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Former defense minister of Armenia Vagharshak Harutyunyan assures that Armenia’s air defense today is the best in the region, reports Armenpress.
He said Armenia has started the army-building earlier and in a more right way, and the Armenian officers are more prepared.
“26 years ago when the USSR collapsed, our neighbor state Azerbaijan had much more arms and armament, but thanks to our right policy we managed to ensure arms-ammunition balance. When we joined the CSTO, we signed the agreement on the Armenian-Russian relations, managed to receive arms which completely ensured our combat operations. During this time we have formed our military educational institution, started preparing specialists in Russia, and up to now nearly 4000 officers prepared there for free. The arms we purchase today from Russia is either free or more affordable compared to Azerbaijan”, the former defense minister said.
He stated that Azerbaijan is not going and cannot go to large-scale war as today there is a military-political balance which stops Azerbaijan.
“Our air defense today is the best in the region. We keep this balance by using our domestic resource”, he said.
As for the April war, he stated that during that time different shortcomings were revealed in the Armenian Army.
“Since 2016 until today major works have been carried out in the Army. Intelligence systems have been installed in the line of contact which “see” the Azerbaijani territory at 5-8km depth, that’s why Azerbaijan’s sabotage actions drastically decreased over the past two years. Now in the Army a very great attention is paid on the production of technique. We produce UAVs, and of course, our production is weaker from the Israeli one, but we produce at cheaper prices and can effectively counter these actions”, he said.
The former defense minister said over the past 26 years Armenia has passed a path, had a victory thanks to the right use of its capacities.