Azernews.Az

Akbar Novruz

Read more

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that there will be no war with Azerbaijan, while stressing that Armenia will continue to develop its army and strengthen its defense capabilities, Azernews reports via Armenpress.

Speaking on the issue, Pashinyan stated that Armenia is carrying out fortification work along its borders and equipping its armed forces with modern weapons, but emphasized that the army’s mission is limited to protecting the country’s internationally recognized territory.

He underlined that Armenia is not preparing for war, describing peace as the most reliable foundation for national security.

“Armenia is not preparing for war, because there will be no war. Peace has been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and there is no more reliable security guarantee than peace,” Pashinyan said.

He further assessed that, in recent years, a vast amount of modern weaponry and military equipment has been acquired, of a quality and specification that our army has never had before. Significant financial resources have been invested in this, as the equipment is both expensive and substantial in quantity.

However, a very important question must also be addressed: why was the same not done in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022?

Nearly all of our international partners with the potential to sell weapons and military equipment were politely refusing to sell arms to the Republic of Armenia, citing two main reasons:

1) They were not confident that the weapons would not be deployed outside the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia.

2) They were not confident that the classified specifications of these weapons would remain secure from the CSTO, to which Armenia’s membership was also an obstacle in concluding such deals.

Meanwhile, as of September 2022, CSTO partners were refusing to fulfill their contractual obligations toward the Republic of Armenia to guarantee its security and territorial integrity. They were also refusing to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of weaponry and military equipment for which Armenia had already made payments.

This constituted an existential threat to the Republic of Armenia, and it became evident that a decision had been made to eliminate our statehood and reduce our sovereignty to zero.

This existential danger was overcome thanks to two decisive developments: the political agreement reached on October 6, 2022, in Prague in a quadrilateral format, under which the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan recognized each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty based on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration; and the freezing of Armenia’s membership in the CSTO.

We will consistently continue this strategy. We clearly state—and will continue to state—that the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia have no mission, and will have no mission, beyond defending its internationally recognized territory of 29,743 square kilometers, except for participating in peacekeeping missions based on international treaties.

The remarks come amid ongoing discussions on regional stability and the normalization agenda between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Yerevan reiterating its stated commitment to a peace-based security framework.