Armenian military chief of staff: Enemy standing at the gates of our homes

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Colonel General Onik Gasparyan published a message on the 29th anniversary of the formation of the Armed Forces on Thursday, January 28 and said the enemy is standing at the gates of Armenian houses with insidious intentions to destroy them.

"We often receive criticism, but we should not despair. We understand that more was expected of us... Our compatriots were full of boundless faith in the Armenian army. I can say with full responsibility that we remained faithful to our oath and fulfilled our sacred duty to the state and to the people," Gasparyan said about the recent 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

He noted that the army has no right to be broken: “Soldiers, officers, generals can only bow their heads before the sacred memory of our fallen friends and their families, and now, more than ever, the Army needs trust and support from every side. No matter how difficult it may be, we continue to fulfill the sacred task of defending the homeland, organizing combat duty on new lines, taking effective measures to restore the Army's combat readiness. "

The Chief of the General Staff expressed confidence that 2021 will open a new chapter for the Armenian army and offer new opportunities for increasing its combat capabilities.

“I assure those who are in despair, those who have lost confidence in us, those who criticize us, and even those who openly insult us, that the Armenian army will quickly recover from its wounds and show the enemy the power of its fist," Gasparyan said

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said earlier that some 3500 bodies had been recovered from the zone of hostilities in Karabakh as of January 20, and that the final death toll from the six-week war wouldn't surpass 4000.