RA Nikol Pashinyan delivered a message
RA Nikol Pashinyan delivered a message, which is presented below. "The terrorist war unleashed by Turkey and Azerbaijan against Artsakh has been going on for 18 days already. Before referring to the situation on the battlefield, I believe it is necessary to underline that today it is very important for us to understand the politico-military situation. but for this we must first understand the reasons and conditions of the origin of this war.
In the negotiation process on the Karabakh question, Azerbaijan had come step by step to a point where, in effect, it asked the Armenian people, the people of Karabakh, to renounce their rights. The essence of this request is as follows. Immediately hand over 5 out of 7 regions to Azerbaijan, present a concrete timetable for the handover of the remaining 2 territories and declare that any status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be part of Azerbaijan. Furthermore, the clarification of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh should have nothing to do with the process of handing over the territories. In other words, the territories should have been ceded not for status but for peace, otherwise Azerbaijan would have threatened to resolve the issue through war. Our government, which had received this negotiating basis as a legacy or rather the final destination of the negotiations, in fact refused to discuss the question in this way, because it was unacceptable. Under these conditions, when an attempt was made to claim that resolving the issue without defining Artsakh's status is not possible, Azerbaijan rejected any serious status debate, stating in fact that the only status Artsakh can have is something autonomous within Azerbaijan. Indeed, the foundations were laid for a system whereby Karabakh should be emptied of Armenians entirely. At the same time, Azerbaijan was developing military rhetoric and anti-Armenian propaganda. Over the past 2.5 years, we have been carrying out reforms in our army, trying to create real conditions for the presumption "there is no military solution to the Karabakh issue". The victorious battles in Tavush in 2020 showed that, unexpectedly for many, the Azerbaijani army is unable to resolve the Karabakh issue by military means. An unprecedented Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercise began immediately after the July battles. A large number of Turkish troops and equipment moved to Azerbaijan.
During the exercise they became convinced once again that the Azerbaijani army will not be able to solve specific problems in the near future and Turkey decided that it should deal with the Karabakh issue. Something unprecedented happened. Turkey openly began to threaten Armenia, simultaneously transferring large numbers of terrorists, mercenaries from Syria to the conflict zone of Karabakh, realizing that the Azerbaijani armed forces alone would not be enough to solve their problem. In this situation, we have tried to use politico-military mechanisms with the simple calculation that if Turkey achieves its goals in the South Caucasus, it will inevitably lead to a chain reaction of events. Therefore, the regional and extra-regional countries, which will inevitably become the object of this destabilization, must undertake strategic deterrence actions. At this stage, however, a strange circumstance was recorded. Some countries with the possibility of strategic containment have not adequately assessed the danger, continuing to consider the issue only in the context of the Karabakh conflict, in fact, considering that the formula "territories for peace" can save the situation. This, of course, being unacceptable to us, is very similar to the Munich Agreement of 1938, when a number of European powers would have ceded Czechoslovakia to Germany for the sake of peace. You all know what happened next. Now the question is the following. Will the world allow the formation of a new Hitler, this time in Asia Minor? The war against Artsakh started unexpectedly for us, we knew and waited, the question is what time and from where the enemy will attack. Artsakh Defense Army is truly fighting a heroic battle from the very first seconds, the Turkish-Azerbaijani terrorist mercenary alliance launched the strongest attack on Artsakh: tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, artillery, aircraft military, helicopters, ATS,
the strongest attack on Artsakh: tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, artillery, military aircraft, helicopters, ATS, a huge number of people, including several Thousands of special forces from Turkey and according to some information from Pakistan, as well as mercenaries and terrorists from Syria. The opponent had no strategic and territorial success during the first week. And this was under conditions in which there were no restrictions on supply and labor, and Artsakh and Armenia operated, in fact, under block conditions. During this period the enemy lost a large number of military equipment, It caused a large number of casualties, but some of these victims were mercenary terrorists, which was not taken seriously in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, every drop of our blood covers us all with murmurs. Not to mention the huge number of victims we have at the moment. The statement released last Friday in Moscow was intended to prevent further losses and our participation in that process, which included a humanitarian ceasefire, the exchange of corpses and prisoners of war, a return to negotiations in the format of the co-presidency of the OSCE Minsk Group. However, Azerbaijan did not join the ceasefire agreement for a second and still continues to attack, hindering the formation of a ceasefire monitoring mechanism. This means that Azerbaijan continues to adhere to its declared political line and has set itself the task of full occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the moment, we can say that the initial Turkish-Azerbaijani terrorist plan to invade Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas with a blitzkrieg has failed. Due to the joint work of the government system, the leaders of Artsakh and Armenia, governments, AN, local self-government bodies. During this time, however, we have suffered a lot of losses. Right now, the number of our victims is very large and I mourn our brave martyrs, who defended the homeland, the rights of their people, our identity, dignity and future with their lives. I bow to all our victims, to their families, relatives, parents and especially mothers, I consider their loss my loss, my personal loss, the loss of my family.
The souls and martyrs of our mighty ancestors, King Artash, Tigran the Great, Ashot Yerkat, Aram Manukyan, Hovhannes Baghramyan, Mount Melkonyan, Vazgen Sargsyan and other heroes, are with us today. Today the Armenians are more united than ever. 100,000 Armenians in recent days provide financial, economic, media and political support to Armenia and Artsakh. Our compatriots of the diaspora are organizing thousands of demonstrations of solidarity, protest and support in different cities, with two specific issues on the agenda: the international recognition of the independence of Artsakh and the condemnation of the Turkish-Azerbaijani terrorist aggression. This is the culmination of our national unification, and this culmination must be crowned by the realization of our specific national goals. It is impossible to break the Armenian people, it is impossible to intimidate, it is impossible to win. We will remain until the end and the name of that end is Artsakh free and happy, Armenia free and happy. Today each of us, one by one, must focus on fulfilling this task. Artsakh, the army, the soldier, the front. This is what should be the goal of our efforts in the diaspora or in Armenia. We need to transform our grieving into anger, our fears into determination, and what we started into action. We must win, we must live, we must build our history and we are building our new history, our new epic, the new heroic battle, the new Sardarapat. And so long live freedom, long live the Republic of Armenia Long live
