If the Azerbaijanis break their promises and violate the ceasefire conditions, we will have no other choice but to appropriately respond, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan told Armenian journalists on the way back from Vienna.

He noted this reflecting on the results  of Monday’s meeting, in the Austrian capital city, between the Armenian and the Azerbaijani delegations, and with the foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chair countries (Russia, US, and France), and their joint statement. 

“Life will show the results,” Sargsyan noted. “Indeed, our objective is for us to solve our problems pacifically and through negotiations. But if the Azerbaijanis break their promises and violate the ceasefire conditions, we will have no other choice but to appropriately respond. (…) I don’t believe that the violations will be completely ruled out [starting] from tomorrow. [But] I hope that it will be much more tranquil than it was to this day.

“We [i.e. the Armenian and the Azerbaijani presidents] have had twenty meetings, agreed on many things during these meetings, but returning to Baku, the president of Azerbaijan has made completely different statements. (…) The important thing for us [i.e. the Armenian party in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks] is that the co-chairs are once again convinced that, first, our objective is not maintaining the status quo, and that to war for eternity is not our objective. We wish to solve our problem peacefully; we wish not to have unnecessary casualties. (…) But I repeat again: if Azerbaijanis violate the ceasefire conditions, we just will have to respond because not responding brings even greater violations.”