At the invitation of Minister of Defense of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Kamo Vardanyan, Minister of Defense of Armenia Arshak Karapetyan on Saturday left for Artsakh on a two-day working visit, as reported the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

Karapetyan, accompanied by the commander of the Defense Army of Artsakh, visited the military bases, met with the soldiers serving on-duty and learned about the fortification works at the military positions.

Highly appreciating the efforts that were made for protection of the borders of Artsakh during and after the 44-day war, Karapetyan awarded several soldiers of the Defense Army certificates and medals of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

The same day, Minister Karapetyan, within the scope of cooperation of the Ministries of Defense of Armenia and Artsakh, attended the working consultation with the leadership of the Defense Army and discussed several security issues.

On November 7, Minister Karapetyan also visited Syunik Province, particularly the Sev Lake territory. The minister toured the area near the side of the lake, met border guards and thanked them for their on-duty, round-the-clock service.

Talking about the possible solutions to the problem with infiltration of the Azerbaijani units into the territory, the minister reaffirmed that there is no alternative to restoration of the state border and that the Azerbaijani soldiers need to leave the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

During the visit, Minister Karapetyan paid special attention to the construction of military bases in the highly mountainous zone, the living conditions of servicemen, and gave assignments to the leadership of the military formation to solve the problems in a short period.