“We also should do something so that the adversary be vigilant”
Why does the Azerbaijani side periodically shell and bomb the RA and the NKR borders? The freedom fighter Shahe Achemyan today at the press conference answered, “The solution to all the diplomatic issues has entered a deadlock. They tried in April, but the international community was able to stop large-scale war. One thing is clear that this issue will be solved through war; simply we don’t know when the large-scale war will break out, as it’s not us, who plans. We should always be ready to resist that sudden attack during the first hours.” Another speaker, Commander Vova Vartanov, head of “Art of staying alive” NGO, founder of the first sabotage-intelligence squad, says why we should always guess the adversary’s attacks, and not to be the attacking side, “Now the ball is in the adversary’s field. If we always let the enemy decide in which direction to attack, one day they will shell Vanadzor and Yerevan. Not being the attacking side is a big mistake of our political and military mind. It is a subject of great prudence for me that the new Minister of Defense isn’t a military figure; he should always look up and not at the adversary.” Mr Vartanov gave very strict assessments to the fact that we adopted the strategy of not being the attacking side, “If you are not the attacking side, it means that you don’t practice and aren’t ready. We also should do something so that the adversary be vigilant. Occasional attacks by our side are not only a matter of honor, it is a matter of strategy, it is a matter of preparing soldiers. Diplomacy can simply extend this war.” He thinks that the world only reckons with the attacking sides, “Let’s recall Hitler’s story; the world negotiates more with the aggressor, and in our case escalations on the border mainly happen either before Turkish days of mourning or before negotiations. We should treat Azerbaijan like a dog; it bites, and you can restrain it by saying ‘foo’, make it do something; we should thought our adversary, our dog, to bring us beer, share the oil. Our current reflector policy is implemented even by frogs; we carried out such experiments at school, when we put a frog without a head into acid, it was able to raise its leg.” Commander Vova Vartanov thinks that our combat readiness is good in some places, in other places it is excellent, especially in the frontier zones, “But if we teach the soldier only to defend, it may have bad consequences. Let’s be a dragon, yet we are a white knight and we only defend, yet, for defending the homeland one must even take sneaky steps.” He supports the idea that 1000 drams are charged for the army, but he has different approach, “I agree to certain percentage, for example if some traffic rule is violated, some percent is charged at the end of the month. There must simply be control.”
