Samvel Babayan Issues Statement

Armenian former commander of the Defense Army, Samvel Babayan, has issued a statement, particularly noting that Azerbaijan has once again taken advantage of geopolitical processes and, considering the experience of Nagorno-Karabakh, has launched offensive operations against the Republic of Armenia today.

He also mentioned: “Clearly guided by the principle that the end justifies the means, Azerbaijan continues to use force to extract the maximum from the Armenian side. In this context, the Armenian peace agenda is not compatible with the realities being recorded in practice. A regular and combat-ready army is a guarantor of the state’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, the physical security of the people, and the socio-economic development of the country. Therefore, the Armenian agenda must be urgently revised: an end must be put to the disreputable attempts to rely on the international community, the defensive policy must be reformed, and armed forces adequate to pan-Armenian challenges and threats must be formed. Instead of eliminating the consequences of periodic encroachments against Armenia, we must prevent them; and the absolute monopoly of this preventive factor belongs to the army. Attempts to prove the opposite and justifications in this regard are amateur-party approaches.”