Military expert Karen Vrtanesyan claims that the Defense Ministry officially had announced about the refusal of the cease-fire on September 26, but for no reasons, this statement was left unnoticed. “The Defense Ministry officially announced that it reserves the right to strike the opponent’s live force and machinery: both movable and still, etc. with missile and artillery means inclusive. This actually means that the ceasefire is no longer valid. I do not know why it went quite unnoticed, and when now, it was repeated three months after this statement, everybody is puzzled,” said the expert.
In his words, Azerbaijan has also made statements on different occasions, even at the Defense Minister’s level, that they will pierce and shoot and so on. “The minister said, I have given a command to shoot at every opponent’s soldier, in other words, it follows from his words that that they no longer reconcile to the ceasefire. Actually, both sides have announced that the ceasefire is not in effect, but some official reports continue to state about the violate of the ceasefire regime. Which is contrary to the statements by these officials.”
Karen Vrtanesyan said he has never accepted the widespread expression that another soldier was killed in the peacetime. “I have always emphasized that there are no peace conditions, it is a war, and the ceasefire does not yet mean the end of the war. The ceasefire means a pause in the hostilities, however, we see that the hostilities are actually on. In such circumstances, the Armenian side has stated that it no longer reconciles to the ceasefire agreement.” The expert opines that the actions of the Armenian side are restrained. “The opponent gets quite an effective response, for the current situation, it is normal.”
To our question of where the created situation will take us to, Mr. Vrtanesyan said that he does not think that large-scale military operations will be launched in the near future. “Although, we need to understand that large-scale military operations are possible at any moment, however, I do not see the possibility if it in the near future, Armenian also is not actually interested in entering into a full-scale war, because they do not have any guarantee that the war will end quickly, any if it lasts long, it may have unpredictable consequences for them. It is another question that on the background of the current economic and political problems, Azerbaijani leadership can exacerbate the situation again and pass to escalation and a new level of violence to be able to keep the power and switch to foreign problems from domestic problems.”
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Karen Vrtanesyan does not also see the solution of the current situation in the near future. “This situation will continue until the parties get tired of everything and decide to solve the problem.” To the question of whether in the case of the return of the territories, Mr. Vrtanesyan continued, “I do not think that something like it will happen, because actually it will mean not a solution of the problem but rapid deterioration of our positions for us. Thereby, we will give Azerbaijan an opportunity to attack us from a better positions, it does not solve any problem for us. Handover of any territory will cause major defense problems. This will mean extending the length of the front line, which will require more resources. Most importantly, the enemy will get a serious strategic advantage, which it will use immediately. Handing over the territories is the most unacceptable move for us.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
