On July 12, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched aggression and made a sabotage attempt in the direction of the Armenian military positions, particularly in the northeastern sector of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The Armenian Armed Forces resolutely thwarted them, after which the Azerbaijani Armed Forces started shelling Armenian military positions, as well as civilian structures and the population. This is what Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in an interview with France24.

“Armenia was resolute during the defense. We worked very closely with our partners, particularly the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries (France, US and Russia) to stop the military operations and restore the ceasefire.

In essence, what happened was a manifestation of the belligerent and hate rhetoric that had become highly intensive in Azerbaijan over the past weeks and months. In essence, they were testing Armenia’s resoluteness and capacities beyond the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh, and this was truly a very dangerous development.

Until now, Armenia has managed to keep the situation calm. However, the situation is still fragile. Our goal is to ensure sustainable ceasefire and to take special measures to strengthen the ceasefire regime and rule out the challenges posing a threat to tranquility along the length of the Armenian-Azerbajiani border, as well as on the line of contact with Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),” he said.

When told that Azerbaijan says the Armenian side was the one that launched the military operations, the foreign minister said the following: “We were rather persistent with the introduction of measures to reduce the risks of tension and investigative the ceasefire violations. However, Azerbaijan is not too willing to accept the proposals and introduce measures that will rule out possible violations in the future. Thus, once again, I call on Azerbaijan to return to the negotiations and accept those proposals and work on strengthening the ceasefire regime.”