YEREVAN. – By violating the border of Armenia, Azerbaijan has violated the legislation, territorial integrity of our state; in this sense, our actions can be in two directions. Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (BAP) and head of its parliamentary faction, told this to a press conference Friday.

"The first is that from the very beginning, when crossing, an attempt should have been made [by the Armenian side] to prevent and strike if they [the Azerbaijanis] did not stop. But the situation is such that they came, were deployed, then they were detected because after the [recent Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war, we [Armenia] have about 540 km of new border which, in fact, is not equipped everywhere, and not everywhere there are troops or border guards. Negotiations began after the detection. As a result of the negotiations, the Armenian side has a legitimate right, if Azerbaijan does not give in, to use all the tools at its disposal, including the use of force. However, the negotiations that are taking place at the moment, the means that are being used are right because all the means must be exhausted, then the last means—the use of force—remains. There is hope that the Azerbaijani side will withdraw as a result of the talks," Marukyan said.

Also, he considered it a right step that the Armenian authorities have petitioned to the CSTO for assistance on this regard because a new tension is escalating within the borders of a CSTO member state—Armenia. "I have criticized [the Armenian authorities] a lot in the past that they did not apply [to the CTO]. Now I say that they did the right thing that they applied. Obviously, this is not a domestic political issue for me," the BAP leader emphasized in particular.

Marukyan added that all the inter-parliamentary friendship groups as well as the international parliamentary organizations have been informed of the situation, and various international organizations are already responding. "Let us continue working on the international platform, increase the pressure on Azerbaijan to withdraw. If not, I believe the Armenian side should not tolerate [it] in any way and should resort to other means. Azerbaijan will not settle down in any way if it sees that this incident was tolerated by both us and the CSTO," he said.