The Azerbaijani troops need to leave the sovereign territory of Armenia — this is how Armenia sees the solution to the problem. All the captives need to be returned to Armenia as quickly as possible. The Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) visited Yerevan, we held discussions on the mission of the CSTO, and I think specific decisions will be made and solutions will be provided soon. This is what Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said during an interview on Armenian Public Television, responding to the question how the issues of Azerbaijani troops in the territory of Armenia and Armenian captives will be solved and what actions the CSTO will take for removal of the troops.

If Azerbaijan isn’t returning the captives and isn’t withdrawing the troops, and escalates the situation on the border on a regular basis, causing Armenia casualties, why is Armenia resuming the trilateral talks at the level of Deputy Prime Ministers? In response, Grigoryan said the Armenian government had seen a need for this and an opportunity to solve the problems.

“We believe the opportunity for negotiations must be used in any situation, and negotiations were even held in the heated periods of the war in the 1990s. The trilateral negotiations were discontinued because there was a need to make this decision at the given moment, but when we saw opportunities, we also used the negotiations format. We need to protect the interests of Armenia by all possible means, and now we see such an opportunity,” Grigoryan said.