Yerevan/Mediamax/. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan announced today that "you can’t shoot and negotiate for a solution at the same time.”

President Sargsyan said this during the session, dedicated to the start of new educational program at Armenian National Defense Research University.

“You either negotiate or shoot, and we are ready for both cases,” Serzh Sargsyan said.

According to him, the negotiations should be held only in case of mutual trust, built by adhering to ceasefire regime, while any provocation may block the process. 

Serzh Sargsyan stressed two circumstances on NK issue.

“First of all, currently we do not intend to announce or solve any military issue in Artsakh. We have provided long ago almost full protection of peaceful civilians from constant fire of the rival. Among other conditions, the peaceful settlement of NK issue should completely exclude the possibility of military threats against peaceful population.

Secondly, NK issue has no military solution,” President Sargsyan said.

According to Serzh Sargsyan, the Azerbaijani side has persistently tried to show that Armenia has allegedly violated certain agreements after the negotiations in Geneva.

“I am looking forward to our next meeting with my counterpart to ask him: “What exactly was our fault?” Moreover, the allegations are made by people, who are not at all supposed to know the details of our conversations with Azerbaijani President. We had an agreement of non-disclosure, so I would like to know how his assistants or, I don’t know, deputies or others could possibly know what we had discussed during the meeting. I can assure that I have not said a single word to anyone on our conversation. We negotiated in Geneva and agreed on weakening tensions, but that does not mean that Artsakh people’s strive for independence should somehow weaken too. Frankly speaking, everything seems quite strange to me,” President of Armenia said.

Serzh Sargsyan emphasized that the Armenian side has not accomplished any act of revenge or collective punishment.

“Nevertheless, we are committed to responding against any military loss.

NK issue is of no ethical or religious nature. We do not have anything against people of Azerbaijan, let alone Muslims in general. We are convinced that Azerbaijani people also want peace, but they need to move that desire into the right direction,” Armenian President announced.