Robert Kocharyan: In fact, we do not control much more territory
There has been a complete failure from the Armenian government to properly address security issues this year, second Armenian President and opposition Hayastan bloc leader Robert Kocharyan told a year-end news conference on Monday, stating no security issues have been resolved in 2021.
Speaking about Armenia's territorial losses, the former president said the authorities acknowledge that 40 square meters of territory fell under Azerbaijan’s control.
"In fact, we don't control much more territory. This has not been talked about. I will try to explain," he said.
Kocharyan noted that the Armenian-Azerbaijani border delimitation using GPS, in fact, led to the deployment of the Azerbaijani troops along the line of their assumed border, as a result of which the Armenian military had to retreat 500 meters and in some places even 1-1.5 km and more.
"This happened not only in the border sections of Vardenis and Araks, but also in the Nakhichevan section even before the war. Do you remember that the Azerbaijani troops advanced deep into Armenian territory? Quite large areas, from their positions to ours, are not controlled by us. In fact, we have lost control not only over those 40-45 square meters, but also over more than ten times larger areas. This is a fact," Robert Kocharyan said.
He recalled that last year Armenia lost the use of the most important roads.
"There has been much talk about this, I would not like to go into details," he said.
During the news conference, the second president is expected to address the foreign policy issues, Artsakh issue, internal political situation and security challenges facing Armenia.