Today’s Government session started with the discussion of the border situation. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan referred to the capture of six Armenian servicemen in the border area of Gegharkunik province, stating that they had been furnishing and demining the state border.
“I want to emphasize that these works were carried out in combination with the installation of warning signs. That is, they were not done for subversive purposes, but demining works were carried out, and parallelly warning signs were placed about the mine being in the area. These actions were taken to increase the level of protection of our border.
Of course, later there was information that our soldiers were taken prisoner. The circumstances must be clarified, but one thing is clear. In fact, it is not a captivity, but rather a kidnapping of our servicemen from the territory of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.
The Acting Prime Minister stressed that the ongoing processes are absolutely unacceptable, and such processes are taking place because some people want us to accept the presence of Azerbaijani forces in our territory, which cannot happen.
“It should be noted that the six servicemen had an engineering problem, the problem of furnishing the border, which is constantly happening along the border, and should happen. I think it is very important to emphasize that the issue should not be used for domestic political purposes at all. All attempts to use this situation against the army and against the armed forces should be condemned, because the servicemen and the army are fulfilling their function of protecting and defending the borders of Armenia.
It is clear that the recent incidents show this is not an ordinary situation, as the Azerbaijani authorities are trying to present. This is a direct threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia, which is a gross violation of international law; and this is the case when Armenia must use all, including international levers, to rectify and settle the situation. And we will take all the necessary measures for that,” Pashinyan said.
According to Pashinyan, today the society should be more united around the army and state institutions in order to overcome this situation consistently and calmly.
“The two goals of the enemy must be recorded and managed. One of the goals is that there is a way to develop the situation so that the presence of their armed forces in our territory is perceived as a matter of course and an ordinary thing. I have spoken about the second scenario several times, to provoke a military conflict in order to get the situation out of control,” Pashinyan said, emphasizing that neither of these two goals should complied.
