YEREVAN. – After the ceasefire signed in 1994, when for the first time the first president of the Republic of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, was summing up the military operations of the previous four years and those who took an active part in them, only two dozen were awarded the Order of the Combat Cross. Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan stated this at his press conference Wednesday, referring to several questions addressed to him.

A journalist asked the president to draw parallels between the recent events in Tavush Province and the four-day war in April 2016. Sargsyan responded, however, that these two events could not be compared in any way. "Certainly, our Armed Forces showed their best and performed a very important task in Tavush. It would be desirable for our society, including me, to be a little more thoroughly informed that the 71 people shall be awarded the Combat Cross, especially for what heroism; it is a very important circumstance, especially for me,” he added.

The third president noted that the difference between these two military actions is very big. "It is one thing to carry out large-scale military operations which were carried out in a section of more than 200 kilometers, and another thing—a military clash which takes place in sections of several hundred meters. I am very happy that once again our Armed Forces showed their best. At least now no one can say that our Armed Forces are not combat-ready," he said.

Referring to the positional improvements and losses, Sargsyan said that this process has never stopped since the 1994 ceasefire. "Until the April [2016] war, we had a lot of improvements in many places (…). We simply did it silently, without noise because the important thing for us is the fact that there is a need for positional improvements and expansion of our area under control. It is not important that we blow the trumpet for that, creating a dangerous situation, and thus to interest Azerbaijan to take reciprocal action," the ex-president said.

To a journalist's question as to whether the Armenian counterintelligence, political and military leadership was aware of the Azerbaijani attacks in advance, Serzh Sargsyan answered: "I am deeply convinced that all the statements that we as if have known accurate information about the attack were simply made by people who did not have full access to the information provided then and the previous period, including by the intelligence, or if they did, they do not have a good idea of what 'intelligence information' means. No, we did not know in advance that a large-scale operation was being prepared by Azerbaijan."

And when asked why they did not know, the third president said that the Armenian intelligence had failed in that regard. "This is also a professional matter, and I must say that, unfortunately, even the best intelligence in the world cannot have complete information. (…). Yes, our intelligence has failed in that matter. We had preliminary information already in the second half of the day on the 1st of the month [of April 2016] that a sabotage operation was being prepared by the Azerbaijanis, and the relevant work was done in the supposed parts," Serzh Sargsyan concluded.