Araik Harutyunyan: I Am Heading to the Frontline with Special Forces to Fight Alongside My Unit

The President of the Republic of Artsakh, Araik Harutyunyan, has announced that he is heading to the frontline. He has made a call, which we present below:

“Generals, officers, sergeants, soldiers of the worthy army of Armenian glory and pride, comrades in arms, devoted volunteers, battles are ongoing along the entire contact line of Artsakh and Azerbaijan with varying intensity. Civilian settlements, including the capital Stepanakert, have come under fire.

The nation and the Homeland are in danger; the right to live freely, independently, and with dignity on our own land, liberated at the cost of the blood of our brave sons, is threatened. Therefore, I am now heading to the frontline with special forces to fight alongside my unit, as I will be more valuable at the frontline than behind the lines.

I call upon all of you to rise immediately and selflessly defend our inviolable right to live without existential danger in our homeland. This is a sacred patriotic war, which we must win with the maximum participation and dedication of everyone. I believe in your spirit of bravery and the strength of your arms.

Let us be worthy of our Great ancestors, all those who sacrificed their lives centuries ago at Sardarapat, in the Great Patriotic War, in the Artsakh Liberation War, during the April War of 2016, and in the July battles of 2020, so that every dawn opens in peace for our mothers, sisters, and children, and every smile is filled with dignity and pride.

Let us be responsible before our present and future generations, so as not to allow the age-old enemy to genocide us again and brandish the yatagan over our existence and dignity, enabling and granting our future generations the opportunity and right to be and to create forever on their own land and with their own values.

We have achieved many victories and have created an organized and combat-ready army that is powerful and victorious in the region. The Armenian army today is the living embodiment and cornerstone of national unity and consolidation. Now it is again time to turn into a unified and formidable army, a spiritual patriotic bastion, against which all foreign storms will break and be repelled headlessly.

I am confident that you share my concerns and beliefs, that you also adhere to the values of national and human solidarity for which we must stand unwaveringly and fearlessly. This is our last battle that we will surely win together. I am with you until VICTORY.

With great honor.