The recent Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian presidential meeting is the reason for an Azerbaijani armed reconnaissance detachment’s intrusion into Nagorno-Karabakh, Konstantin Zatulin, the Director of the Institute of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and member of the International Affairs Committee, RF State Duma, told NEWS.am. According to him, any escalation in the conflict zone is a serious incident.

“Such actions are not taken spontaneously. The decision was probably made at a high level,” Zatulin said. He stressed Azerbaijan is actively usinf an “exacerbation strategy” at both the propaganda and diplomatic levels. “This time Azerbaijan did not stop at this point, and the mounting tension is now spreading to the military field,” he said. The expert stressed Azerbaijan’s actions proved to be unexpected to him.

On June 18, at 11:30 p.m. an Azerbaijani reconnaissance detachment intruded into Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan, an NKR Defense Army operational report says.

The trespasser Azerbaijanis could intrude into the north-eastern section of the NKR-Azerbaijani contact line, killing 4 Armenian soldiers and wounding 4 others, the NKR Defense Army press service reports.  The armed reconnaissance detachment encountered Armenian soldiers on duty. The Armenian side took retaliatory measures. The enemy retreated, leaving one soldier killed and ammunition.

On June17, an Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian presidential meeting was held in Saint Petersburg.