On 24 April in Tsitsernakaberd (Swallow Fortress), after gestures of respects towards the victims of Genocide, the RA Minister of Defence Seyran Ohanyan, by the requests of journalists, reported the announcement of Ilham Aliev made a day before. He stated that we are trying to avoid warlike announcements, but this does not mean than we are not ready to defend our country. Today our army is more than efficient and is ready to fulfill its tasks not only in the process of defending our country, but also to realize preventive activities.

The Minister added, “We should understand the following – our privilege to Azerbaijan is that we try to solve all the problems and conflicts in a peaceful manner. I think, these announcements are of permanent nature, for they try to have psychological impact on us and on the international society as well. But it is impossible, because if Azerbaijan again tries to speak to the Armenian nation in a language of force, then a worse and more catastrophic situation will be rise in Azerbaijan. This is because we have a second privilege – we are defending our motherland.” RA MoD Department of Information and Public Affairs