The Armenian side is ready to remove snipers from the border, Armenian military said.

Representative of the Chief of Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Colonel Andranik Mkrtumyan said Armenia welcomes the initiative and is ready to implement it but not unilaterally.

Colonel Mkrtumyan met with field assistants of the Personal Representatives of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Antal Herdich and Irjie Aberle on Wednesday after the monitoring held along the line of contact between the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan (photo).

“Firing at peaceful citizens is a serious violation of the Geneva Convention. Targeted fire at the peaceful citizens is equal to murder,” Mkrtmyan said.

Referring to a series of provocations undertaken by Azerbaijan within the last month, the representative of the General Staff said that during the previous monitoring Armenia stated that it would be reluctant to resort to retaliatory measures.

“However, we were forced to undertake adequate actions to finally calm down the Azerbaijani side. Therefore, I am asking once again let the Azeri side know that our patience is not endless.  Armenian soldiers adhere to the Geneva Convention but our patience may run out, they felt it a month ago,” said Mkrtumyan.

The representative of the General Staff said that the Armenian side offered to hold direct meetings between the representatives of the commands, and representatives of local communities in the future.

“I am sure this will have a positive impact on maintaining the ceasefire. In addition, we have evidence that the Azeris, the residents of border villages, attacked with sticks the soldiers who were firing at our villages. This suggests that peaceful population of Azerbaijan does not welcome the shooting at Armenian civilians,” he concluded.