Serzh Sargsyan: Russia has provided Armenia with great support, and it is unacceptable to accuse it of provoking the war

Arminfo, Armenia
Aug 19 2020

ArmInfo.Russia has provided Armenia with tremendous support, and it is unacceptable to accuse it of provoking the war. The third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan stated this on August 19 during a press conference.

"As you remember, in 2010, Dmitry Medvedev, who at that time was the  President of Russia, paid a visit to Armenia. During this visit, an  additional protocol was signed, according to which the Russian  military base assumed additional obligations. The fact is that before  that the Russian base was responsible only for the external borders  of the CIS. However, according to the agreement signed in 2010, it  has already assumed responsibility for the entire length of the  Armenian border. Moreover, Russia has also assumed the responsibility  to update our weapons. Before the April events of 2018, Armenia  received more than 50 000 tons of military-technical assistance from  Russia. In this case, assistance means that you do not have to pay  for it, "Sargsyan stressed.

The third president noted that it is wrong to say in such a situation  that Russia allegedly knew about the forthcoming April war. It's  unacceptable to make such statements.

"Russia is our strategic ally. Spreading such ideas is ignorance, and  accusing an ally of provoking a war, that is, of betrayal, is  impermissible. It is obvious that such statements will have  consequences, "the third president of Armenia noted. You should  remember that no one except Armenia has an "Iskander", not even  Belarus. And Azerbaijan in 2016 did not go to full-scale military  actions because of "Iskander". Therefore, the very fact that we have  this weapon speaks of a special attitude of Russia towards Armenia,  "Sargsyan noted.

He also noticed that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces began hostilities  using special forces.

Sargsyan also stated that many believe that Moscow could stop the  fighting in Artsakh with one call.