YEREVAN. - The statement made by the Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolay Bordyuzha regarding the incident on the Armenian–Azerbaijani border can be assessed as positive and targeted.
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov, who is also the spokesperson for the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am.
“I consider that statement positive for three reasons. First, the operative response from the CSTO is already very positive. Second, Bordyuzha regards the diversionary attempt in Chinari [village] as a provocation, that is, CSTO no longer speaks with general assessments. Nikolay Bordyuzha precisely qualifies the actions of Azerbaijan as a provocation, this being not only the position of the CSTO, but also that of the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chair Russia. Third, speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh), the Secretary General of the CSTO uses the wording “Нагорно-Карабахская Республика” (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) in the original Russian text. I don’t remember the CSTO or other institution to mention the word “Republic” in its official written assessments when referring to Artsakh. This is a new impulse and pressure against Azerbaijan,” he said.
In Sharmazanov’s words, of course, a stricter assessment can be given, but this can be accepted to a certain extent as a targeted assessment, which named the Azerbaijanis’ actions a provocation. “We should realize that there is a diplomatic vocabulary and from this standpoint this was quite a serious and targeted assessment.”
Referring to the adversary’s diversionary infiltration attempt on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Sharmazanov noted that this is Azerbaijan’s response to the Saint Petersburg and Vienna agreements. It is also not ruled out that Azerbaijan, finding itself in a deadlock in the negotiation process, tries to either change the situation or make the talks more complicated, he noted. “Aliyev makes such a step while the mediation sides are talking about the continuation of talks and immediate implementation of the principles adopted in Saint Petersburg and Vienna. This is a condemnable step. It shows the genuine nature of the state of Azerbaijan, which poses a serious threat to the regional security.”
As reported earlier, Azerbaijani troops launched a diversionary infiltration attempt, on early Thursday morning, at the Republic of Armenia (RA) state border, southeast of Chinari village in Tavush Province.
The Azerbaijani armed forces were driven back, having suffered injuries and casualties—including in the Armenian military positions, informed the Armenia MOD. “The RA Ministry of Defense possesses 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.
