YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. It’s been 25 years since the trilateral ceasefire agreement brought an end to the active war operations between Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh) and Azerbaijan, however numerous lives are still claimed by the latter’s ceasefire violations across not only the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border, but also the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

“This agreement factually stipulated that Artsakh does exist as a state, as a party to the conflict, as a party to negotiations, because this agreement was signed also by representatives of the Republic of Artsakh and eventually it is thanks to this agreement that today we have a relatively stable and peaceful region,” Artsakh’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Director of Communications of President Sahakyan’s Administration David Babayan told ARMENPRESS. He emphasized the humanitarian perspective, noting that the ceasefire deal brought end to war operations and saved lives.

Babayan says the region also greatly benefited from the agreement, as well as the international community in general.

According to him, if Azerbaijan is conveying an offensive nature to the war, than Azerbaijan itself is becoming offensive. “We’ve never been an aggressor, but if needed we will shift the warfare into the enemy’s territory and will impose peace. It’s another thing that we do not adopt such strategy, because we are not aggressors or terrorists, but if needed we must fight against aggressors and terrorists with force,” Babayan said, emphasizing that Azerbaijan is conducting an offensive, subversive, Nazi strategy, while the Armenian side is doing the complete opposite.

He noted that the imperatives are also different for the two sides.

“We do not seek to destroy Azerbaijan’s statehood, but they seek to destroy the Artsakh and Armenian statehood, overall they want to commit genocide. We must always be strong, united and carry out correct geopolitics – this is the key to peace and stability. We must view the current configuration in our region this way,” he said.

The trilateral ceasefire agreement, signed between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Artsakh, come into force May 12, 1994.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan