The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretariat received with a particular concern the information about the armed incident near Chinari village, in the Republic of Armenia (RA).
The aforesaid is noted in CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha’s comments on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border incident, on Thursday.
“We assess such actions in the territory of a CSTO member state as a provocation, especially against the backdrop of the quite serious incident in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in April of this year, with the use of heavy weapons and military equipment.
“Considering the efforts launched by the leaders of the two [conflicting] sides as well as of some [other] states, it seemed that the Karabakh conflict settlement process finally would be more active. However, the information being recently received from the region, [and] about the violation of the ceasefire agreements, especially the December 29 incident which has caused the death of military servicemen, gives rise to serious concern,” reads the comments by the CSTO Secretary General.
Azerbaijani troops launched a diversionary infiltration attempt, on early Thursday morning, at the RA state border, southeast of Chinari village in Tavush Province.
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, Spokesperson of the RA Minister of Defense, had informed that the Armenian armed forces entered into a battle with the adversary.
“Snipers’ and grenade launchers’ fires are shot, which continue,” he noted. “The RA Armed Forces fully control the situation by preventing the encroachment of the adversary.”
The adversary was driven back, having suffered injuries and casualties, including in the Armenian military positions, informed the Ministry of Defense (MOD).
“The RA Ministry of Defense possesses of irrefutable evidence of RA state border violation by the Azerbaijani side,” reads the MOD statement. “The military and political leadership of Azerbaijan bears the full accountability for the provocation that took place.”
As a result of this infiltration attempt, however, the Armenian armed forces suffered three casualties: Senior Lieutenant Shavarsh Melikyan, and Privates Edgar Narayan and Erik Abovyan.
