Azerbaijan thinks its hour of triumph has come – Armenian president

Armenian President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Armenia’s Armed Forces Serzh Sargsyan participated in a solemn meeting of the Board of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense, on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the Armenian army.

The participants in the meeting observed in minute’s silence to pay tribute to the heroes that sacrificed their lives in defending Armenia’s border and to all the servicemen and freedom-fighters that sacrificed their lives in the Nagorno-Karabakh liberation war.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan made an opening address at the meeting:

“Honorable Generals and officers,

“Before we listen to reports, I would like to say a few words.

“First of all, I would like to say that the beginning of the year saw tension and we witnessed numerous unprovoked attacks by the enemy. We suffered heavy losses and we are grieving with the families and relatives of all the fallen boys. I do not think anyone has any doubts that Azerbaijanis will pay a heavy price for the life of each of the boys - they have paid, are paying and will pay a heavy price.

“The aim of the enemy’s unprovoked attacks is obvious. Azerbaijan’s leadership does not conceal they are seeking to create permanent tension round us by combining political and military means. This is a policy of overt blackmail, with its principal addressee being the international community rather than we. Seeing its absurd ‘me-first’ style failing in the negotiations, official Baku is trying to show everyone what it can do unless all of its whims are satisfied, without seriously realizing or analyzing the aftermath for themselves. Moreover, every time a problem arises inside Armenia or a tragic event occurs, Azerbaijan thinks its hour of triumph has come and it shows itself on the frontline.

"In vain; that’s absolutely to no purpose. Twenty-five years ago, in conditions more complicated and difficult than now, we were the eyewitness of their nonsensical speeches and appetite. I am sure that most of those who have gathered in this hall remember them voicing menacing remarks in the early 1990’s, threatening to wave the Azerbaijani flag in [Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital] Stepanakert; one of them had so much gone out of senses that he even was talking about washing feet in [Lake] Sevan. After the [liberation of] Shoushi, they were repeating their [desire] to drink tea in Shoushi every week in a short time to come. We have eye-witnessed all that. We never menaced, but we did coerce our predominance in the battlefield. We are stronger today. We are much stronger than ever  before.

“We do not have any reason to trigger a war. We never provoke incidents on our own. You know very well about it. And we are never the first to provoke an attack. We do not need that at all.

“But any incident incited against us has been and will always be followed by retribution. The acts of retaliation we have initiated so far have been symmetric in form and asymmetric in terms of inflicting greater losses. ”

“Symmetric acts of retribution may be possible from now on. The hot heads should wait for great many a surprise. Moreover, whenever we see crowding on our border and along the Line of Contact, we vest ourselves with the right to launch preventive actions.”

“Let no one think that we will be sitting in idleness, waiting till the calamity gets into our homes. We are obliged to be fierce to anyone plotting calamity for us. I repeat, the other side’s adventurousness will force us to cause irrevocable damage through retribution.

“We do understand that the Azerbaijani authorities are ready to mercilessly send hundreds and thousands citizens to the brink of death to secure their own thrones’ protection. But we cannot tolerate that at the price of our citizens and soldiers’ life. That cannot be done at our expense.

“We stick to the belief that the right thing is to continue the talks and to reach agreements under the well-known principles, and that is possible only in case of maintaining the ceasefire and building bridges of trust.”

“I once again declare, to the notice of all, that we're ready to both the good and bad. I have all the possible options there on my table.

“With a sober friend, we are can and must negotiate peace.

“On the non-sober adversary, we must and will by all means impose peace.”