In the field of security, I consider it a complete failure for Armenia, as no issue has improved this year. The second president of Armenia, leader of the opposition "Armenia" Bloc Robert Kocharyan stated this during his year-end press conference Monday (PHOTOS).

"Loss of territories. Authorities also acknowledge that more than 40 square kilometers are under the adversary’s control. But in reality, we do not control much larger areas.

The [Armenian-Azerbaijani border] demarcation with that GPS led to the fact that the Azerbaijani troops have been positioned along the ‘mouth’ of their supposed border, we had to retreat from 500 meters to 1-1.5 km, a little more in some places. The same happened not only in the Vardenis-Araks section, but also in the Nakhichevan section even before the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [last year]. You remember that the Azerbaijani troops advanced in very large areas. We do not control the whole area from their positions to our positions. In fact, we have lost control not only over those 40-45 km, but over ten times larger areas," he said.

According to Kocharyan, this year the Armenian side has lost the opportunity to use the most important roads.

"We have had about 36 casualties, 30 wounded, and more than 30 new prisoners of war over the course of this year.

Nothing was done during the year to increase the army's combat-readiness. Having more than 30 captives during combat operations for 2-3 positions speaks of most serious problems in the army. This can be explained by some things. And the main explanation can be the following that our soldiers were under the impression of the expression of the first person of the country [i.e., Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan]. ‘We are not going to fight for one mountain, are we?’ Our country is made up of mountains. It is the same as the Arabs saying, ‘We are not going to fight for the desert, are we?’ This is also an invitation to some extent, a ‘welcome here’ for the Azerbaijanis. You say we are not going to war for uninhabited mountains. If the first person thinks so, why do we think that an army major or a contract soldier should think differently? It's one of the best ways to reduce the combat-readiness of the army," the second president said.

He stated that nothing was done last year to restore the army's armament as well.

"The death toll [in last year’s war] has not been announced yet. This is a disgrace! We should have a memoir; this would have been an approach towards the casualties, their families. That was the duty of the state. It is abnormal to leave this matter so vague after a year.

It is also a fact—and all the polls show—that 70-80% of the population is seriously concerned about security issues. The country cannot develop normally when 80% of the population thinks that they live in an unsafe country.

With all these issues, we enter next year in a worse way. The army budget is not such that we can hope that these issues will be resolved next year. It is impossible to resolve such issues with this military budget," Robert Kocharyan emphasized.