YEREVAN, APRIL 2, ARMENPRESS. Spokesperson of the President of the Republic of Artsakh Davit Babayan assures that following the April war necessary conclusions have been made and huge works have been done to further raise the combat readiness of the army and to make the frontline stronger.

In an interview with ARMENPRESS Davit Babayan underlined the importance of a powerful Armenian army for regional peace and stability. “Any aggression by the enemy not only demonstrates our power, when we repel it, inflict losses on the enemy and protect our independence, but also shows the existing problems, shortcomings, and omissions. During these two years huge works have been done to strengthen the frontline, to raise the combat readiness of the armed forces, to acquire modern military equipment for the army, but this is a nonstop process. Everything will be done from now on to have a stronger army than that of Azerbaijan”, Davit Babayan said.

He stressed that having a powerful army is a necessity in case one has a neighbor that leads a terrorist policy like Azerbaijan, since it’s the only way to force the aggressor to endorse peace. “We must have an army capable of not only repel any attack, but in case of necessity to just move the location of the hostilities deep into the aggressor’s country and to force it to endorse peace. The peace that exists right now it’s to some extent a result of coercion because an aggressor country like Azerbaijan does not understand any other language. And the international community should take all these into account and do so that the peace is not a result of coercion but it should be achieved as an important value”, Babayan said.

For Davit Babayan Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora cooperation and the strengthening of that trinity is of key importance. According to him the international community is interested in peace and stability in this region, but the Armenian side should not entirely rely on the efforts of the international community, but build up its own powerful army.

The Azerbaijani troops launched a large-scale aggression against Artsakh overnight April 2, 2016, using almost all the weapons of its arsenal. The ceasefire regime was restored on April 5.

English –translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan