Our Enemy is Preparing for New Adventures, Says Marukyan

“Currently, the most urgent issue is the security challenge in Syunik. You know that as a result of our defeat in the war, a situation has arisen where the communities of Syunik are now under the immediate observation of Azerbaijan,” said Edmon Marukyan, the leader of the 'Enlightened Armenia' party during a press conference.

According to him, Azerbaijani armed forces have taken positions in elevated areas due to what is referred to as border demarcation in Syunik, making the challenge in Syunik increasingly a critical problem for the Republic of Armenia. “Azerbaijan has submitted its military budget for 2021 to the parliament, which allocates $2.7 billion, approximately $550 million more than the 2020 military budget. After the war, Aliyev has repeatedly stated that the issue of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is no longer open for discussion; we will speak of that issue in the past tense. Following this statement, Azerbaijan continues to maintain and even increase its military spending. This indicates that our enemy state is preparing for new adventures, and to defend against this, we need a new strategy,” he said.

“On behalf of the LHK, I issued a statement today that we can address the security issue in Syunik by signing a new agreement with Russia. We must begin these negotiations immediately, and we already have experience; this is the military base in Gyumri. The Gyumri military base has ensured the security of that region for decades. In this regard, it is clear that the Russian peacekeeping forces located in Artsakh can be more easily supplied from the military base located in Syunik than from Gyumri. Otherwise, even if we were to spend our entire state budget on restoring our armed forces, we would not be able to solely address and confront the critical challenges that have arisen in this situation,” he added.