Mikael Harutyunyan

“The hearsay that lieutenant general Manvel Grigoryan and lieutenant general Gagik Melkonyan support Levon Ter-Petrosyan does not correspond to the truth. These statements are absolutely false. All Deputies to the Defense Minister are performing their duties. The army doesn't deal with politics. We obey the orders of the Supreme Commander. Dreams of the opposition will never come true.”

“No one will involve the army in political processes!”

“NATO plays a significant role in ensuring international security and stability. This fact is proved by the presence of peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Cooperation with the Alliance is a priority for Armenia. The IPAP initial 2-year stage is completed. The outcomes will be discussed at the 26+1 NATO session in April. Strategic reconsideration of the security system will start this year.”

“Artsakh cannot be a part of Azerbaijan...if like in 1997 they want to become a friend of Azerbaijan on the price of Nagorno-Karabakh, I do not agree with that. In that case, what answer can we give to the families of victims of the Karabakh movement and to those who have become disabled. Why did their sons fight? And about Turkey, we cannot leave the word genocide out of our vocabulary and forget about the 1.5 million victims.”

“In comparison with 2006, the death rate has decreased by two times, and it is the lowest since the formation of the army. But we can not say this is a good result, because even one death is a loss for us.”