The victorious army is 15 years old
Editorial

Yerkir.am
January 26, 2007

The Armenian army is 15 years old. We can state with no hesitation that
creation and consolidation of the army was one of the greatest
achievements since independence.

Our ancestors had nurtured the dream of having regular armed forces for
centuries believing the army was the guarantee for national security.
In the beginning of the last century the Armenian nation had a unique
opportunity to restore the statehood we had lost centuries ago, and the
army played the leading role in this process.

We will not be wrong to emphasize the role of the army since the new
structures of the nation state were in the stage of formation at that
time and the national army managed to prevent the enemy’s last attack
and ensured emergence of the independent state.

The newly established Armenian army emerged in the fire of thirty years
of national liberation wars. The army, created on the basis of guerilla
troops, fought for the homeland for two and a half years, and if it
left the homeland, it left a well-established and recognized state.
Seventy years later, the new Armenian army was once again formed in a
time of national liberation struggle.

Our army was born in very difficult conditions; it was born on the
battlefield in a time of war.

A nation that was deprived of a right to self-defense had to rely on
the self-sacrifice of volunteers. The volunteers joined the Artsakh
struggle in its earliest stage. And it was the volunteers’ efforts that
brought a breakthrough to the war and determined its outcome.

The national army that was formed on the basis of the volunteer troops
took up the fight and continued it when the struggle had already turned
into a full scale war. Boys of 18 shared the hardships of war with
their older fellow soldiers, so did they share the responsibility and
right to become martyrs if needed for the homeland.

We have all grounds to take pride in our army, not because it simply
exists but because it is a victorious army. At the same time, this puts
a heavy burden of responsibility on today’s and tomorrow’s soldiers.

This responsibility grows when you remember that the war is simply
frozen and not ended while the enemy continues threatening to break out
a new war. It is not a secret that these threats are not materialized
for the simple reason that the enemy knows that it cannot defeat the
other side. This in turn means that we must exceed our enemy in
military power to prevent the wheel of history from turning back.

It is wrong to think that greater military power means having stronger
weapons. The advantage lies with the soldiers and their spirit. The
army that cannot be defeated within itself will never be defeated by
the enemy. And the strength of the soldiers’ spirit comes from their
ideological stand and their conviction that they are fighting for the
fair and moral cause. Strong is the soldier whose rear is strong.

The army is part of our society. Therefore, it reflects all positive
and negative phenomena that exist in the society. If we want to have a
strong army we must have a just, strong and united country and society.
Without having a strong country we cannot have a strong army, and
without a strong army we cannot have a strong country.

As long as we live in a region with unsolved problems we must have a
strong country and army. We must value and appreciate our army and our
soldiers. The soldiers must be the most respected members of our
society. We should have high respect for the soldiers.

It would probably suffice to finish with praise and congratulation on
the Army Day but if we are proud with our army and if we want it to
enjoy our trust in the future we should also speak about our
expectations. Since the army concerns the whole society our words and
congratulations should be addressed to everyone.

We should first of all congratulate the soldiers who are defending the
borders of our country in very difficult conditions. We should
congratulate all those who have taken up military career. We should
extend our special congratulations to all those who have participated
in the Artsakh liberation war, and commemorate all those who sacrificed
their lives for the dignified and proud future of our country. Let us
finally congratulate the mothers of our soldiers, and congratulate each
other on the 15 anniversary of our army.