During the April developments, the Armenian armed forces fulfilled the tasks set to them and any bargaining on the given issue is inadmissible, President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview with the Armenian TV channels, following the Vienna meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart.
"Only those who have never felt the powder fume and are far from military art or those who have never made victory reports can bargain on the conduct of operations. They seek to look patriots at the expense of others and call for war. We do not need a perpetual war. We do not need military actions that will resort to adventurism achieving their goal or maybe not. We need armed forces that fulfill the tasks set to them with confidence. And those tasks were fulfilled in April," President Sargsyan said. In his words, everyone who tries to find problems and omissions do not help settle the conflict. "I can say that we won. Our armed forces fulfilled the task and will keep doing so," he said.
As for the territorial loss, the president said the issue should be considered in the context of strategic and tactical importance. "If estimating by meters, the security zone of the Armenian forces is 800,000 ha, we have lost 800ha of land having neither tactical not strategic importance - it is 1/1000. Psychotically, the Azerbaijani side can persuade its people that they have gained prevalence over our positions. However, considering that they had 1dead and 2 wounded soldiers per ha or even 0.5 dead and 1 wounded soldier per ha - no one knows the exact number - it is anyway very much," the president said. Sargsyan said that the Armenian armed forces were able to restore their original positions, but we preferred to keep more lives.
"We do not want losses. I do not think that the loss of the best men for the motherland was justified. It would be better if they lived for motherland, but if Azerbaijan violates the ceasefire, we will have to retaliate, as no retaliation leads to more serious violations," he said.
Sargsyan said he demanded the Armenian armed forces not to let the enemy break into the defense line or shatter it. "I think the victory and defeat are assessed with the goals set. If the victory is to spoil the plans of the enemy, I think everyone has made sure that we did it. I think our defense department has fulfilled its task," the president said. The only case when war is justified is defense of the motherland. "We have made our choice and we will do out best not to let the April developments happen again," Sargsyan said. He recalled that in Vienna the president of Azerbaijan continued making allegations against the Armenian side over the April aggression, but he received a tough response.