YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s defense minister Davit Tonoyan says the top priority in the defense sector is the creation of favorable military conditions for the peaceful settlement of the NK conflict.

“For me it is a priority to create favorable military conditions for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Here we must note the contradiction between the terms “peace” and “military conditions”. However, as they used to say during the years of the Cold War – “missiles are made for peace, not war”. Armenia is the guarantor of Artsakh’s physical security,” Tonoyan told EADaily.

He said that the Armenian military, together with a proactive foreign policy, is called upon to ensure negotiations conditions in the NK conflict settlement process. In this context Tonoyan attached importance to constant sobering actions of the Armenian Armed Forces and cooperation with Artsakh’s army to suppress enemy aggression, taking into account the non-stop belligerent rhetoric of Azerbaijan and statement on possible use of force for solving the conflict.

“The next priority is raising the reputation of the army inside the country. In this issue my attention is focused on ensuring the army’s neutrality in namely political processes, guaranteeing human rights protection in the military, strengthening military discipline, perfection of procurement mechanisms and improvement of social conditions of servicemen,” he said.

Speaking about the third priority, the minister said that strengthening foreign relations is also very important.

“The defense ministry will continue expanding the geographic and content area of allied and collegial ties within the framework of the Armenian foreign policy vector,” Tonoyan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan