Azerbaijan conducted seven diversionary operations so far this year, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Minister Movses Hakobyan stated during a press conference on Thursday. 

Last year the adversary was able to infiltrate into Karabakh territory several times. “This year seven such attempts were made and all of them were prevented on time. Suffering losses, the adversary was forced to retreat,” Hakobyan noted adding that, except for one attempt, the adversary was unable to cause any losses to the NKR Defense Army.     

As per the Minister, Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire in NKR’s direction 12,000 times since the beginning of the year until October 1. It had breached the truce 9,519 times within the same time period last year. As Hakobyan noted, in the case of firing shots, the Karabakh side likewise opens retaliatory fire. “The adversary is attempting to maintain a tense situation at the line of contact,” NKR Defense Minister noted, and added: “I don’t know how much they have managed to raise the spirit of their own army, but they have not achieved [any] success in other respects.”    

Movses Hakobyan informed that an analysis has been conducted on the causes for the NKR Defense Army servicemen being killed by Azerbaijani snipers. “We have done much work to correct the situation at the line of contact,” the NKR Defense Minister noted.