YEREVAN. – The murder of an Armenian serviceman by Azerbaijani sniper had no political background, expert Sergey Minasyan said at a press conference on Monday.

According to him, tension was reduced enough on the line of contact between the Armed Forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan over the last 2-3 months.

“The incident is not in the context of political tension run periodically by the Azerbaijani side. The tension on the contact line has been reduced after the Sochi meeting between Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian Presidents, where the sides acknowledged the necessity to reject extremes and expressed readiness to continue efforts into bringing closer their positions,” he said.

According to Minasyan, Azerbaijan has recently been avoiding provoking tension on the contact line.

“Taking into account that there are thousands of servicemen in the frontline, the death of a soldier was probably not an accident, but it did not carry political background as well was not a result of Azerbaijani’s far-reaching strategy. Baku has realized that the military blackmailing does not work and seems to have given up that strategy. However, such incidents will unfortunately occur in the future,” he added.

Earlier Armenian News-NEWS.am informed that Albert Adibekyan, 20, was killed by an Azerbaijani sniper on Feb. 23 near Chinari village, Tavush Region.