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The Armenian Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces on Tuesday issued a joint statement, urging people to refrain from actions that could undermine the foundations of the Armenian statehood and, learning from all possible mistakes, build an incomparably strong and efficient army. Below is the full text of the statement:

“On September 27, a war was unleashed against Artsakh, which was unprecedented in terms of the forces, means, amount and type of armament involved. It was unprecedented in the sense that our army was, in fact, fighting not only against the 10 million-strong Azerbaijani armed forces, but also against Turkey's direct military participation, full and unconditional political, military and diplomatic support, as well as several thousand mercenary terrorists.

Our army, in these conditions, did everything possible and impossible to resist the enemy. Every soldier, officer and general of the Armenian army did his best for the defense of the homeland, devoting himself to that struggle and creating many heroic stories. This war took away from us our best sons, whose memory will forever remain bright in the hearts of all of us as real heroes of our time.

Each of you must be sure, no one should have the slightest doubt that our army has done the possible and the impossible. We have once again proved that we have invincible soldiers, officers and generals who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the defense of our holy Motherland without a second thought.

But it is time to stop the bloodshed. The political leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan have reached an agreement, the content of which you are already familiar with.

The war is not over, the hostilities in Artsakh are still ongoing. Nevertheless, we support and we are obliged to implement the decisions of our country's military-political leadership, which were made on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the situation and assessment. We must stop the bloodshed.

We must find the bodies of all our heroes and bury them with military honor. We must try to soothe the pain of our heroic mothers and heal the wounds of the wounded. We must restore the potential of our army and strengthen it even more, turning it into a state-of-the-art and super-capable body. There is a lot of work to be done. The war is nearing its end. The army has fulfilled its tasks and will continue to do its best.

We urge to refrain from actions that could undermine the foundations of the statehood and, learning from all possible mistakes, to build an incomparably strong and efficient army, which our heroic people deserve.”