YEREVAN. - The recurrence of the last-year escalation in the Karabakh conflict zone is possible, especially considering that Armenia is in a pre-election stage.  

Head of the Modus Vivendi Analytical Center, expert Ara Papian told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am.

In his words, such a complex phenomenon as war is not conditioned by only one factor. “There are several of such factors. Of course, there is also the impact of the April escalation, since Azerbaijan perceives and presents this as a victory and attempts to repeat it once again. The lives of its own servicemen are of no value to Baku, but they think they may manage to seize certain territories and present this as an achievement greater by dozens of times,” Papain noted.

However, according to the expert, it is necessary to consider the fact that as compared to last year, the Azerbaijani economy is suffering setback due to the drop in oil prices. “Thus, Azerbaijan realizes that this is its last chance and tries to take advantage of it. Apart from this, Baku must try to distract the attention from the appointment of Ms Aliyeva to the post of the First Vice President of Azerbaijan, since this was perceived with certain irony even within the country,” Papian stressed.

Azerbaijani side made two offensive attempts at 3 am and 4 am on Saturday in the southeastern (Martakert) and eastern (Akna) directions of the line of contact by using demining and special equipment.

The vanguard units of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Army, however, detected the advancement and drove them back to their starting positions, causing them casualties. Consequently, the Azerbaijani side suffered losses. Several bodies are in the neutral zone. The Defense Army has not suffered casualties.