STEPANAKERT. - On the days of four-day April war, the Nagorno-Katabakh authorities had accepted the Azerbaijani Defense Minister’s statement to bombard Stepenakert and got prepared to counterattack in case of such development, Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan said in an interview with Artsakh Public Television and Mediaton company.

“We accepted that statement and immediately got ready for such development. Calling their aims into question would mean that we continue staying misled. Our child killed at school, the bodies of our beheaded sons, our 90-year-old parents shot in their flat and other atrocities [committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces] prove that they were once again coming to behead all of us, tear into pieces the tombs of our ancestors, as well as rape our women and sisters. Therefore, we have to give relevant qualifications to their actions and carry out all our further actions considering that cruel truth,” Sahakyan said.

He also noted that following that, he ordered to bring to the firing positions anti-aircraft autocannons, multiple rocket launchers and rocket systems, including long range multiple launch rocket systems.

“If Azerbaijan made such a step, we would immediately open fire and the response would be adequate in case of such development,” he said.