The battles were taking place 2-3 kilometers away from Stepanakert. If hostilities were allowed to continue, we would have lost whole of Artsakh, Artsakh’s President Arayik Harutyunyan said in a video address.
He said the consequences would be irreversible for the soldiers who had been heroically fighting for 43 days.
According to Harutyunyan, for a few days the Armenian side had managed to defend from UAVs, but during the past two days the enemy inflicted great losses on the Armenian troops employing new UAVs and new technologies.
“Why did we fail to succeed? All of us will answer, yes, all of us because we knew that our army had needs,” the President said, adding, however, that notwithstanding all that, the troops were resisting.
“We were not fighting only Azerbaijan. Certainly not only Turkish officers or military equipment were involved in the hostilities. Turkish servicemen, terrorist and mercenaries were definitely involved,” he said.
The President reminded that he had called on his compatriots several times saying that they were needed. “We had lost the main control over Shushi since November 5, but completely lost it on November 7. We did not want to believe that we were losing the homeland completely, we did not want to believe that it was impossible to fight with the already available resources – human and military resources,” he said.
The Artsakh President assured that they had long been trying to discuss and prevent it at the negotiating table for a long time, but it turned impossible.
“Everything is ahead! Artsakh, the Armenian nation, Armenia have had very difficult days in history, but we were able to make some wise decisions, to follow the right path, to achieve success. And who said that’s the end of it all? This is the beginning. We will have the opportunity to make a more sober decision, for that we need solidarity, first of all in Armenia, Artsakh, among the Armenian people,” he stated.
“Disunion and panic have been our greatest adversary. The national problems are still ahead, our vision has not faded yet, on the contrary, we have a dream, we have a dreamed homeland, that is why we must maintain solidarity, avoid developments that do not suit the Armenian nation. We have opportunities to make civilized decisions, to hold discussions. Everything is just beginning, I do not want to open the brackets, we have not lost, everything is ahead, we have to think, think, think again, evaluate, and make decisions,” said Harutyunyan.
