YEREVAN. – The April war was a surprise and at the same time not a surprise at all, PM nominee Serzh Sargsyan said during a special session of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

According to Sargsyan, there are cases when people, convinced of something, cherish hope that the opposing side will be guided by common sense, and will not take steps that harm both sides.

Speaking about the lessons of the April war, he stressed that the first lesson is that from now on we do not have to hope that the leadership of Azerbaijan will give up the idea of solving the Karabakh problem by force.

“As to what extent the leadership of Azerbaijan managed to carry out its program, I think that the current situation at the line of contact proves that they failed, of course. The next lesson is that we must pay major attention to the improvement of the Armenian Armed Forces, the purchase of new weapons, the production of our own weapons. And, most importantly, the spirit of the Armenian soldier and officer must be at a high level. It is necessary to solve the everyday problems of the Armenian soldier and to strengthen his faith in the future,” he said.

Sargsyan underscored the importance of the reforms in the armed forces, pointing to additional improvement of the equipment.

“We were not the same as we were in April 2016,” he added.

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