If the aerial border of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was transparent, nothing would stop the Azerbaijani air forces from bombarding Artsakh, including Stepanakert. This is what third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan declared during a press conference today, touching upon President of Artsakh Arayik Haroutyunyan’s statement that the air in Stepanakert was not protected in 2016.

“If, for a moment, we assume that our aerial space was not protected, we need to add that the Azerbaijanis simply felt sorry for us and didn’t want to harm us. That’s impossible. When we talk about anti-air defense, we need to state that military planes are one thing, and unmanned intelligence aerial vehicles and unmanned strike aerial vehicles are another thing,” Sargsyan said, adding that the Defense Army of Artsakh crushed 9 unmanned aerial vehicles during the Four-Day Artsakh War and later 8 more unmanned aerial vehicles.

“There was no unmanned aerial vehicle in the sky in Stepanakert. The crushed UAVs were maximally 10-11 km away from the border,” Sargsyan said, adding that air defense is not a gate that can protect the country from unmanned aerial vehicles.

When told that in 2016, former commander of the Defense Army Levon Mnatsakanyan had declared that there were problems with serious intelligence equipment, Sargsyan stressed that this was a military secret and that he doesn’t have all the information and can’t provide details.