Serzh Sargsyan: "No military action can solve the Artsakh issue"

ArmInfo."We are grateful to you for the enormous work you have done and which is called the service to the Fatherland. First, we shall commemorate those immortals who are being awarded today posthumously.

We, as a nation, stand by the parents who raised these heroes and send to their families the words of compassion and support," Armenian President  Serzh Sargsyan said in his speech on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Armenian Armed Forces.  

The press office of the Armenian President quotes Serzh Sargsyan as  saying, "Those boys fell defending their families, their friends and  us all. They fell so that Armenia can live, so that aspirations of  our people live on and become a reality. They became immortals and  together with us will continue the millennia-long and incessant march  of the Armenian nation." "The Armenian Army was created along with  the reestablishment of our statehood. However, the formation of the  Army started earlier, and it started not from the top but from the  bottom, spontaneously, through the instinct of self-defense of the  people. Hideous events, which had taken place in Sumgait, Baku, and  other places in Azerbaijan, awaked our historic memory with the  blood- chilling pictures of massacres and forced deportations. Formed  spontaneously but deeply consciously the voluntary movement and first  units of volunteers had become the axis on which the glorious and  victorious structure - the Armenian Army would rise.    We, as a nation, had united. Last time, we had been united like this  at Sardarapat. The superior resources of the foe did not scare us. On  the contrary, that fact made us serious, organized, and focused. Our  Army was formed at the battlefield. We were fighting agains the enemy  literally inside our own home. I recall a true story: a man with the  arms in hands was fighting the enemy in his own home.  He fought and  retreated from the doorway to the kitchen, then still fighting he  retreated to the living room, then he took back his kitchen and his  doorway. This is not an allegory; this is a true story from the  heroic battle of Karintak. The war imposed on us, made us all the   Army; this is the truth.  On the other hand, we need officers -  professional, experienced, and deeply knowledgeable of the military  science. We have been able to smoothly and effortlessly to intertwine  the professional capabilities of the military and the strong battle  spirit of the home guard. We were aware that the Fidai movement, even  if of a heroic nature, had no prospects. The time had come to create  a professional army. Military servicemen all over the Soviet Union  answering the call of the Fatherland gathered here and carried out  that tremendous task," Sargsyan says. 

The President recalled that twenty-five years ago, by the order of  Vazgen Sarkissian, the Armenian Army became a state structure. "From  that day one, we were fighting in the self-defense war at the state  level. From that day on, the new and glorious history of the Armed  Forces of the Republic of Armenia is being written. Many of the pages  and heroes of that history have already appeared in history books.  Moreover, that history has become an indivisible part of our national  identity. That history is our self-respect, human and national  dignity, the proof of our freedom.  

I have stressed on many occasions that no military action, to say  nothing of a new war can solve the Artsakh issue. Moreover, a new war  will become an additional, thorny component of the issue which is  complex enough, but not a solution. Events of last April proved once  again (and I stress "once again') to our adversaries that the use of  force or threats to use force is a tragic and dead-end road, which  means it's not a road at all. Those events had also proved the vital  and crucial importance of the safety zone created around Artsakh. We  are not going to fight another elongated war in the doorway and  kitchen of our own home, we have done it already.      The blood of our martyrs is the price we have paid for our freedom  and our future. Today, the thankful generation is bowing to the  memory of our immortals and continues with honor the patriotic work  of their grandfathers and fathers. Today's servicemen and conscripts,  now with new structures and new weapons, continue to improve and  develop, continue to be the unswerving shield for Armenia and  Artsakh. Currently, it would be hard to find a stronger defender and  a more ardent proponent of peace that the Armenian Army. Next  twenty-five years will be a period of a new qualitative rise for our  Army.  Officers, as a special stratum of our national intelligentsia,  will have a greater public standing and weight, will have a greater  professional, including technological, efficiency. For the  conscripts, the military service will truly become a school of life,  starting from the military skills and up to civil and psychological  readiness," Serzh Sargsyan stressed.