At a press conference held today, NKR Minister of Defense Movses Hakobyan described 2009 as militarily "quite complex", but nevertheless claimed that units of the Karabakh Defense Force were able to advance their frontline positions by about one kilometre in five different locations along the Arax River. The NKR Defense Minister also boasted that, "I am ready to perform operations with this tank unit anywhere, even deep in enemy territory, and I am convinced we’d face no problem at all." Here he was referring to the outstanding results of military inspections conducted in 2009 and the fact that the tank unit in question also performed quite well in military manoeuvres.

Reviewing the military situation, he stated that Azerbaijani forces weren’t able to violate Karabakh positions in 2009 other than gunfire which increased by 30% over 2008. DM Hakobyan claimed that Azeri forces committed 3,042 gunfire violations of the ceasefire last year. He went on to say that peace in the region could only be guaranteed by a superiority in the military preparedness of the Karabakh forces and that work is constantly being carried out to ensure such superiority. The NKR DM stated that Karabakh forces opened fire 608 times on Azerbaijani positions not in reaction to gunfire from the other side but due to the ever changing situation at the front lines. Most of the fire was of a "punitive" nature he said and this resulted in no Azeri successes at the line of contact.