“Those lands were taken for the purpose of creating a security zone round Republic of Karabakh and as well as for providing security for the Karabakhi people. We have pressed back all the fire points that could be dangerous for the cities and communities of the republic” said defense minister of Karabakh, general lieutenant Seiran Ohanyan on December 6 during a press conference organized in the first border line of Karabakh.
With this sentence in fact the Karabakhi defense minister repeated RA president’s adviser Garnik Isagulyan’s idea that the surrounding territories of Karabakh were captured so that we have something to give instead to provide security in Karabakh. “Certainly, if we want to settle the conflict we will have to compromise and give something instead, which is a consequence of political negotiations and activities of the governments. You might have noticed that generally I don’t speak about that. My main goal is strengthening the first line and struggling for protecting each inch of land” said the defense minister of Karabakh.
Concerning the accusations of Azerbaijan that Armenia has violated the ceasefire agreement the defense minister said that all the cases of ceasefire violations had been done by Azerbaijan. “We haven’t spoken about this before since we thought there was no need to announce about shootings in the whole world and make much noise, but I think it is important to speak about it. By doing so Azerbaijan wants to lobby against us and say that we have violated the ceasefire agreement”. The minister says that everyone that knows about our routine life, how we have struggled and how we appreciate those values may not think so.
Answering to a question whether there had been any changes in the border lines during this year Mr. Ohanyan said, “There were such attempts in 2006, but those were failed. All what was happening during the previous years (2004-2005) were stopped this year because we have started observing the border line more attentively”.
Concerning the situation in the border Mr. Ohanyan said that it was quiet. “Of course sometimes there is fire, sometimes snipers shoot, but we counter them only if those shootings are targeted, i.e. we never counter to shootings that are not targeted. In spite of the other years this year was quiet. The percentage of victims by fire has been reduced almost to zero. This is due to the fact that we spend more resources on engineering security facilities” said Seiran Ohanyan.
By the way, it was not by chance that the defense minister gave interview at the border line in a tent. It was done due to journalists, who had asked the minister to allow them visit an army basement of the defense ministry and then see the situation at a border line point. Later the journalists visited a border defense point in 120-150 meters distance from the Azeri defense points.