YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: Yesterday, volunteer detachments were forming in Syunik with great vigor; the population of the province is waiting—in ready form—for "bad developments," as Deputy Prime Minister [Tigran] Avinyan sounded.
The people of Syunik are not going to give up Ishkhanasar to the enemy [Azerbaijan]. It is a hill of strategic importance, and to give it up would mean giving Syunik to the adversary as a gift.
The thing is that the position of the mountain is such that it keeps the whole Syunik under surveillance, including the Goris-Yerevan motorway—our only motorway with Iran.
The people of Syunik believe that once the mountain is handed over, it will become impossible to live there any longer.
And the enemy has accumulated a large number of troops and weapons on the border, including an air defense system which is probably to counteract our SU 30 [war]planes, which took to the air on the first day of the incursion. By the way, [Armenian] government sources say that the missiles of the planes have arrived.