Serzh Sargsyan: Baku should realize that it will not manage to solve the problem by force

ArmInfo. While Azerbaijani Army is only said to be strong we have demonstrated our strength on practice, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated in an interview to "Golos Armenii" newspaper, commenting on the statement made by his Azerbaijani counterpart that the Azerbaijani army is one of the most combat-capable armies and that it has allegedly won in April war.

"One can see the real reason of Karabakh problem via these statements by Baku. The reason is the militant regime, for which forever war with neighbours is the way to retain power. You know there are so many lies in Aliyev's statements that if I start to comment each part of his statement we will need several days. I will be brief. For all these years Azerbaijani headship's policy has led to complex of inferiority and defeated.  The Azerbaijani authorities use every opportunity to overcome this complex lying, spreading misinformation and falsifying the facts. They have always stated that Azerbaijan is stronger than Armenia, that they have modern weapons, and petroleum dollars using which they can conquer Karabakh at any moment. Failing to reach this goal during the April war the Azerbaijani authorities have to justify human and military losses they suffered during that war", he noted.

Sargsyan also added that unlike the Azerbaijani side the Armenian side does not need propaganda to demonstrate the power of its army. The evidence of our army's power is the fact that in four days of the April war the Azerbaijani armed forces with all their modern weapons was not able to defeat Karabakh army and suffered big losses", the President noted.

Sargsyan noted that after becoming independent Armenia has faced a lot of challenges including war imposed by Azerbaijan and blockade from east and west. "Despite all these and disparity between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Karabakh's armed forces the Armenian Armed Forces proved the same way as 25 years ago that by relying on themselves, without any external help they can win and force the adversary to set ceasefire. There is an impression that the Azerbaijani President tries to gain "physiological victory" over the brains of its own people, indulging in wishful thinking. We consider that in the issue of ensuring security Armenia first and foremost should rely on itself. Of course, we have agreements on military cooperation, which have preventive role. These international agreements are aimed at raising the level of defensibility of the country and efficiency of solving the tasks given to the armed forces", the President mentioned.

"I have an impression that Baku perceives military actions as a computer game risking not only lives of young soldiers but the fate of the entire Azerbaijani people, not realizing that if new war is initiated by Baku Azerbaijan will have to pay extremely heavy price. The question is not whether the Nagorno- Karabakh Defense Army was able to return the territories or not. The question is the price, which would have been paid for these 800 ha. We value each young soldier's life and we will try to avoid resumption of military actions and will attempt to break the deadlock in the negotiation  process", Sargsyan stressed.  The President considers that victory or loss of the Army should be measured by set goals and achieving them rather than by the results of single operation. "What was the goal of April aggression? Was it to violate the ceasefire, attack the adversary, kill civilians, demonstrate heads of Armenian soldiers after beheading them, and award those who have done this? We do not want forever war but if the Azerbaijani authorities attempt to try their fate they should be prepared for the worst scenario. In that case they would have no one to blame for loss of their cities and regions except themselves. Baku should realize, that it will not manage to solve the problem by force. Our whole nation is the Armenian Army, which was ready to defend its Homeland in April the same way as 25 years ago", he summarized.