Yesterday, the most militarized member of the Council of Europe (and the third most militarized country in the world) Armenia celebrated one of the main state holidays - the Army Day. On this day, by tradition, the authorities openly acknowledge that the armed forces occupying the territories of Azerbaijan in and around Nagorno-Karabakh are military units of the republican army, although usually Yerevan calls them the "defense army" of the non-existent state NKR.
The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, called the military of his age "a happy generation as they saw the revival, strengthening and establishment of the Armenian army, the generation that not only saw, but also became the participant of the army building and reforming process," stating that Armenia had to start building our own sovereign statehood with self-defense. Recognized at the level of the UN Security Council, the facts of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by the Armenian Armed Forces are thus called "self-defense", although Azerbaijan has never claimed the Armenian lands, while Armenian military units invaded de facto and de jure territory of the neighboring state and captured 20% of its lands.
The military protection of Armenia's independence, that no one ever claimed, was also stressed by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, who said that the establishment of the occupation army became "the first and most important achievement" of the republic, adding that "in the days of April battles for Karabakh in 2016" the army again proved that it is always ready to respond to any action against our homeland "(quotation of the Sputnik-Armenia website). It is noteworthy that the Prime Minister not just kept silent about the defeat and retreat of the Armenian Armed Forces deep into the occupied territories as a result of the April fighting for Karabakh, but the fact that, according to Karapetyan, the Azerbaijani territories are part of Armenia.
Thus, for Yerevan, the presence of Armenian troops in the occupied territories is not something that should be hidden from foreign states, including the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs - it is part of the military and political pride of the separatist Karabakh clan governor, who perceives the occupation of 20% of Azerbaijani lands as "self-defense of the motherland". And on the Army Day, that is, the Day of the Occupiers of Karabakh, Yerevan allows itself to say it openly.
