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The balance of power between Armenia and Azerbaijan never tilted and will never change amid Azerbaijani purchase of new weapons, Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan stated during the interview to Armenian Public Channel’s “Off the Agenda” program aired on Saturday evening.

“The balance never tilted and will not be shifted. It was shifted in 1992 with the Azerbaijani side having the full advantage in terms of the available armament. They failed to fulfill their task then and ended up with what was achieved in May 1994. That was the only period when the balance was tilted, while it will be maintained forever,” Mnatsakanyan stressed.
 
In the minister’s words, the Azerbaijani army faces serious problems in terms of efficient use of the obtained weapons as evidenced by the experience.

“We saw that in April once again. During the military actions of the Four-Day war in 2016 the adversary applied modern armament, Smerch multiple rocket launchers, TOS-1 artillery systems, T-300 Kasirga multiple rocket systems of Israeli and Turkish productions, combat drones with precision strike capability among them. With all that they claimed only limited success in certain directions. This comes to demonstrate that despite the weapon acquisition, they have problems in terms of exploiting them,” the minister said also questioning the Azerbaijanis ability to fully utilize them during border actions.

Asked whether the adversary is preferring offensive or defensive operations judging from the available intelligence data, Mnatsakanyan noted Azerbaijan voices its tactic of offensive predominantly in its public statements, while in reality carries out serious defensive works.

“Our surveillance systems provide information at a distance of 10-15 km deep into Azerbaijani territory with the adversary engaged in heavy engineering works. It shows that despite their statements, Azerbaijanis are forced to defend should the time come. The Defense Army will attack upon necessity and carry out tasks in those territories,” Mnatsakanyan added.