YEREVAN. – The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact is relatively calm, Armenia Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan told reporters on Wednesday.

He noted that this relative calm is substantially due to the increase in the level of preparedness of the Armenian armed forces.

“The RA [i.e. Republic of Armenia] and the NKR [i.e. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic] army constantly works to perfect the elements of military watch, [and] we have improved the monitoring system, which enables to better monitor, detect, orient, and adopt decisions,” the minister said.

In Ohanyan’s words, numerous factors affect the easing of tension.

“The political climate, meetings, the three [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs’ activity, work that needs to be done within the framework of the meeting of the presidents of the two countries [i.e. Armenia and Azerbaijan] have an impact,” the minister said. “We, as the leaders of the power structures, have always urged that the international political structures put this issue: We either maintain the ceasefire, or not.”