“It’s necessary to do the utmost to avoid new bloodshed and solve issues through negotiations,” Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said as he commented on the seizure of a police station in Yerevan.

“As a rule, any state, nation or society puts aside any domestic disagreement, when facing external challenges to the Motherland and unites to resist the threat,” he said.

“After the April war the Armenian nation is facing the challenge of ensuring the security of Artsakh Armenians and finding a favorable solution to the Karabakh conflict, which overshadows all other issues,” Levon Ter-Petrosyan said.

He said “any step, words or action of the authorities, parties, NGOs, analysts or journalists should be assessed from the viewpoint of contributing to or causing harm to this utmost issue.”

Levon Ter-Petrosyan said its’ useless to discuss the reasons that have led to the radical step of an armed attack against a state institution. He stressed the importance of avoiding new bloodshed and solving the issue exceptionally through negotiations.

“It’s useless to give lessons of patriotism to Jirair Sefilian and his comrades-in-arms. Their patriotism needs no proof. They have proven it on the battlefield by voluntarily participating in the Artsakh war,” he added.

“No matter how fiery and radical Jirair Sefilian could seem, I have got convinced during personal contacts that he is able to judge soberly and make reasonable decisions. I hope this ability will not betray him and he will put the fate of Armenia and Karabakh above everything,” Levon Ter-Petrosyan said.