YEREVAN (ARKA) — Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan on Tuesday, November 10 addressed the nation with a video message, in which he called the truce a necessary step to save the republic. “It was probably the most difficult night in my life. The decision that was made the day before, I don’t know what assessment history will give to this decision, was forced,” Harutyunyan said.
Among the reasons, he pointed out that during 43 days of hostilities Artsakh lost several regions – Fizuli, Jabrayil, Kubatlu, Zangelan, Hadrut (mainly), part of Martuni, Askeran and, most importantly, Shushi. “The fighting continued on the outskirts of Stepanakert at a distance of 2-3 km. If the fighting continued at a similar pace, then within days we would have lost all of Artsakh and would have had more casualties, since the fighting, having moved to the rear, would have irreversible consequences for the frontline, where our forces are heroically fighting for 43 days, especially our conscripts. If we lost Stepanakert, what would become of the soldiers on the front line in the Askeran and Martuni area? There would be a possibility of their encirclement,” Harutyunyan said.
He noted that Artsakh managed to defend itself against UAVs for several days, but the last two days, the enemy, due to new technologies or new devices, was again able to inflict serious damage on the Armenian troops, as a result, just the day before, the troops suffered heavy losses from the UAV in the Martuni region.
Harutyunyan noted that everyone who did not succeed in Artsakh would be responsible for the failure, because they knew that the Defense Army had a similar problem, everyone who held positions in recent decades. “In general, the state of the army in the future must be assessed and I am sure that it will be. In addition, the moral and psychological state of the troops was not very good and, in a sense, it could be said extremely difficult. It was not possible to replace them on the front line, to give rest, to cure, every day they participated in hostilities, every day they were wounded and killed as shelling continued,” Harutyunyan said.
But at the same time, according to him, they were able to resist the armed forces of, one might say, eight states, “since we [fought – ed.] not only with Azerbaijan, the officers and equipment of Turkey, but also with mercenaries, terrorists from various countries. We were forced to spare and save the lives of these conscripts,” Harutyunyan said.
Answering the question of why everyone was not informed about the situation in due time, he recalled that he had said from Aghdam that he needed the support of his compatriots, and on October 29 – from Shushi. On that day, he said that Shushi was under threat and the enemy was already 5 km away.
