Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan on Tuesday chaired the inaugural meeting of the Security Council.
A number of important security issues relating to the vital functions of Artsakh were on the agenda, the presidential office said.
Before proceeding to the discussion of the issues on the agenda, President Arayik Harutyunyan delivered a speech.
In his speech, the president noted that the main mission of the country's authorities in the field of security is to guarantee, in a narrow sense, the security of the population of the Republic of Artsakh, and in a broad sense, the security of the Armenian people.
In this context, the Artsakh leader outlined the priority directions of the policy to be implemented in this area, including military security, sustainable economic development and self-sufficiency, reinstatement of a stable and efficient political system, and information security.
Touching upon the issue of efficient fulfillment of the outlined objectives, the president highlighted the need for proper implementation of their functions by all state institutions aimed at ensuring the security of the homeland.
"As head of state and guarantor of the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Artsakh, I comply fully with the mandate entrusted to me, and the same should hold good for all the entities and public officials," the president underlined.
Below is the transcript of Arayik Harutyunyan's remarks:
"Respected members of the Security Council,
As you know, this is the inaugural meeting of the Security Council since I assumed office as President of the Republic of Artsakh.
Prior to this, we held a joint meeting of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh.
A range of crucial security-related issues on the vital functions of the Republic of Artsakh are on the agenda of today's meeting.
Before we proceed to the discussion of issues on the agenda, I would like to make a note of some important points:
First of all, it should be noted that our main mission in the field of security, I repeat, mission, and not merely a goal, is to ensure an adequate level of security of the population of the Republic of Artsakh in the narrow sense and the Armenian people in the broad sense. In other words, Artsakh plays an important role and is responsible for ensuring the security of the Armenian people.
We can carry out this mission adequately through our consistent efforts, hard work and prudent policy aimed at building sustainably the strategic resilience of our shared Homeland.
This can be attained, through concerted efforts of Mother Armenia and the Armenians all over the world, at four levels - globally, at a regional level, domestically, meaning Armenia and Artsakh, and in four priority directions - the military track, economic, political dimension and information security.
It should be borne in mind, once and for all, that all these levels and directions are interrelated, each in accordance to its strategic value.
Let us go through each level and direction in turn.
Firstly, our mission at a global level is both to hedge against and avert the global challenges and ensure a favourable environment for global guarantees of our security in all directions. Of course, our role in global events is small, but it would be wrong not to recognize our modest contribution to global security as one of the key guarantors of stability and peace in the region.
Secondly, at regional level, we face the main and imminent threat to our security posed by Azerbaijan through its extremely aggressive and Armenophobic policy. It is noteworthy that this actual threat in the face of Azerbaijan is conspicuous in all directions, thus turning into tangible and extended existential threat to the people of Artsakh. Therefore, our top priority is to gear our sustained efforts - military, economic, political, information and the list is long - towards addressing those threats.
Certainly, a range of other regional threats considerably affect the security environment and strategic resilience of Artsakh, sometimes having an incentive, catalytic effect on the manifestation of Azerbaijani threats and their intensity.
Thirdly, the Armenian level implies that Artsakh is an inseparable part of the Armenian world and part of single security architecture with Mother Armenia, thus, the security system of the Republic of Artsakh echoes all kinds of developments in and around the Republic of Armenia, and the other way round.
And the fourth, at the domestic level, meaning Artsakh, the size of our responsibilities and capabilities is dramatically increasing, and the security areas are expanding. Since working on the first three levels should ultimately serve to solve problems at the internal level, it is worth focusing a little on what to do in different directions at this level.
The major thrust on the military track, quite naturally, aims at ensuring security. Here, we should be guided by the principle of "All and everything should be provided for the army by priority, and the army should serve all." We should make consistent efforts towards both further build-up and upgrading of weapons, improved governance, strengthening military infrastructures, providing social guarantees for the servicemen and in all other directions. Adding up to our ever-growing accomplishments in other main spheres, we must strengthen our institutional approach to capacity building of our auxiliary voluntary armed forces, the nationwide militia, and development of local arms industry. With this regard, we have yielded tangible results; however, there is room to achieve more.
In the economic dimension, our primary task is to ensure sustainable development and attain the threshold of self-sufficiency. No doubt, economic development and raising significantly the standard of well-being of the population will reflect positively on the security system.
One of the main objectives is to ensure self-sufficiency or at least high level of flexibility and discretion in terms of strategic goods. We have made strides with this regard; however, there is a long road ahead.
In the political realm, our primary objective is the accomplishment of a solid and effective political system where all the state entities will efficiently carry out their functions on the basis of constitutional order. All the state entities are obliged to serve the cornerstone purpose of ensuring the security of the Homeland.
As head of state and as the guarantor of the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Artsakh, I comply fully with the mandate entrusted to me, and the same should hold good for all the entities and public officials.
Of course, the Defense Army, as the main guarantor of the physical security of t...
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