“For 29 years already Armenia is involved in ensuring the physical security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR/Artsakh), who has been imposed on military aggression as a response to their attempt to exercise the right to self-determination of nations,” Minister of Defense of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan noted during today’s visiting session of Valdai Discussion Club titled “Time of Change: The World in an Era of Global Unpredictability” underway in Yerevan.
“Taking into account the threat to the physical existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Armenia has been involved in this conflict becoming an absolute guarantor of Karabakh people’s safety. Despite the significant differences in armament and demographics, after the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR), the people of Nagorno-Karabakh managed to defend their rights and form a clearly operating system of state administration,” Vigen Sargsyan said.
Armenia’s Defense Minster underscored that the Armenian side acts upon the 1994 ceasefire agreement in the Line of Contact (between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan).
“Unfortunately the Azerbaijani side continues violating the ceasefire on a daily basis, making subversive attempts and regularly applying artillery. The Armenian Armed Forces and the NKR Defense Army are forced to retaliate [to the Azerbaijani aggression] to cool the hot-heads and to state impossibility of the military solution to this conflict,” Vigen Sargsyan added.