“It is an irreparable loss for the Artsakh people, everyone mourns, especially in these days any victim is an irreparable loss for us. On the other hand, our soldiers have and do shown that they are firmly standing defending the borders of the country”, – said the NKR President’s spokesman David Babayan, in an interview with Aravot.am, commenting on death case of DA soldier Erik Grigoryan deceased as a result of subversive actions by Azerbaijan on December 4. It is noteworthy to mention that the Azerbaijani subversive acts were carried out on the next day following the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on 3 December.
Note that the heads of the delegations of co-chair countries say that “in the event of noticeable rise in violence in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border this year, the status quo has become unstable. “We especially condemn the use of mortars and other heavy weaponry, and regret deeply the civilian casualties these weapons have caused. There is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and there is no justification for the death and injury of innocent civilians. We appeal to the sides in the strongest possible terms to reduce tensions and protect lives. The Co-Chairs have proposed risk-reduction measures that we encourage the sides to adopt, including an OSCE investigation mechanism.”
David Babayan described the Azerbaijani subversive act following this statement a terrorism. Babayan said, “What is going on in Azerbaijan can be described as terrorism, genocidal politics and this case of ceasefire violations has its peculiarities. First, it is made almost a day after the statement made by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. This was a challenge addressed to the civilized world, a challenge to the three-chair that says that there should be a peaceful settlement. While Baku officially responds to their call by a terrorism.”
The other peculiarity, according to Babayan, is that this terrorist attack has taken place during the visit of the Turkish prime minister to Azerbaijan. “It is symbolic because Turkey does not hide that it is conducting a policy of terror against the Armenians. Davutoğlu, earlier Chavushoglu, the remaining “oghlus,” all of them have stated, “Artsakh is an Azerbaijani land, we should liberate the lands,” such absurd statements are made. Now, it is not excluded, more precise, it is a pattern that Turkey has urged Azerbaijan to resort to such action. This is a shame; this once again shows what Turkey represents.”
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To our observation that these actions by Azerbaijan are taking place ahead to the scheduled meeting of Sargsyan-Aliyev, which was welcomed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Mr. Babayan said, “Azerbaijan and Turkey, in fact, to some extent, slap the international community, it is impossible to find any reasonable explanation because what they are doing, first of all, is against their national interests. Apparently, there is no one there to think about the national interests. Everyone is thinking about personal interests and business. The same Turkey does a good trade with the terrorists, and their president’s family is using it, Turkey was sending terrorists, gray wolves, to war against Artsakh, the generals of Turkish HQ and other senior officials participated in the Artsakh war, until, not they are training the Azerbaijani army. There are facts on which, I think, the international community should not turn a blind eye.”
In other words, Azerbaijan does not care and ignores the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group, in response to our observation, Babayan said, “Both Azerbaijan and Turkey, and yes, this time, we can use those words.” Note that in addition to the intelligence-subversive operation, as reported by the press service of the NKR Defense Ministry, the ceasefire regime was violated about 80 times by various caliber weapons in the night of December 3 and the morning of December 4, as well as 60 /197 projectile/, 82 /43 projectile/mm mortars, AOP-17/14 projectile/, RGP -7/1 projectile/ grenade launchers and TR-107-type jet rocket station/ 4 projectile/, more than 650 shots were fired in the direction of Armenian border guards.
Nelly BABAYAN
