“We have no reason to initiate war. We don’t instigate incidents. You know that very well. And we never are the first ones to attack,” President Serzh Sargsyan said on January 26 during a special session at the Defense Ministry dedicated to the 23rd anniversary of the formation of the Armenian army
The President also noted that if and when attacked by Azerbaijan, Armenia reserves the right to take preventative measures and to counter-attack when necessary. “Until recently, our counter operations have been symmetric in terms of form and asymmetric in terms of causing larger casualties,” Sargsyan said and added, “Henceforth, there may be counter-measures that are asymmetric in form.” He warned that Azerbaijan should be prepared for countless surprises on the battlefield if it continued attacks along the borders.
Sargsyan promised that for every Armenian loss, the Azerbaijanis would be a high price: “They have paid a high price, today they are paying a high price and that is how it will be in the future.”
He said that Azerbaijan is responsible for destabilizing the situation on the borders and its tactics are clearly to blackmail the international community and to show the world what it is capable of doing if its demands are not met. Sargsyan said that Azerbaijan’s military and political leadership is playing a dangerous game because they have not seriously considered the “horrible consequences this will have for them.”
The pattern of Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia are obvious and even transparent, Sargsyan noted. He said that anytime there is evidence of domestic turmoil or if a tragedy occurred in Armenia, Azerbaijan used that opportunity to ‘show itself’ on the frontlines. “We never boasted during the war, but on the battlefield we imposed our rule,” he said adding that Armenia has never been as strong as it is today.
“Let no one think that we are sitting with our arms crossed, waiting to see when the catastrophe will enter our home. For those who prepare that catastrophe for us, we are obligated to be merciless,” noted Sargsyan and threatened that Armenia is prepared to cause irreversible damage to its opponent.
“We remain committed that the proper way is to come to an agreement, to continue the negotiations…and that is possible only through maintaining the ceasefire and through building bridges of trust. No one has achieved anything good by burning bridges,” he said.
Concluding his remarks, Sargsyan added, “Once again, I publicly announce: We are prepared for the good and the bad. All potential alternatives are on my table. We can and are obligated to negotiate for peace with a realistic partner. We are obligated and without condition, will enforce peace on an unrealistic adversary.”
Since the beginning of January, tensions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border and the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact have increased with a number of bloody clashes taking place resulting in casualties on both sides.
The Spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan had informed the public that on the evening of January 25 and the morning hours of January 26, the borders of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh had been relatively calm.
The Nagorno Karabakh Defense Ministry had issued a press release that on “January 24-25 the adversary had violated the ceasefire regime about 800 times, during which different caliber weapons had been used to fire about 14,000 times on Armenian frontline positions.” Retaliatory operations had been conducted by the frontline units of the Karabakh Defense Army resulting in three Azerbaijani casualties and a number of injured. The Armenian side did not suffer any casualties.
