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Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first President of Armenia, has commented on the seizure of the patrol police regiment and the follow-up hostage standoff.

“Every state, nation or a society with its number of internal disagreements and controversies, as a rule, puts aside everything and consolidates itself in the face of a threatening external challenge in trying to withstand that,” Ter-Petrosyan’s statement reads, which also suggests, that after the April war the Armenian nation is ahead of such a challenge of ensuring the security of the Artsakh people and settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

To Ter-Petrosyan, every step, statement and action by the authorities, political parties and NGOs, analysts and journalists should be assessed through the prism of whether it supports or damages that priority challenge.

In the view of the foregoing, Ter-Petrosyan sees it pointless to analyze the causes beyond the armed action against a state agency, which is labeled as ‘an extreme step’.
The first President suggests to draw conclusions and make analyzes only after the settlement of standoff, try to avoid bloodshed and settle the standoff through negotiations

To Ter-Petrosyan’s words, there is no need to give lessons of morality and patriotism to Jirayr Sefilian and his friends, since their patriotism requires no proof. They have proved that on the battlefield by participating in the Artsakh war, displaying self-sacrifice.

“No matter how erratic and extremist he might seem, based on my own interactions I can assure that at crisis times Jirayr Sefilian is able to judge reasonably and make prudent decisions. I want to express hope he will stay committed to this ability and will place the fate of Karabakh and Armenia above everything else,” reads the statement.