“After the Defense Ministry’s official statement, this should be assessed as a new round for the region, fraught with all its consequences”, – said NA MP, the leader of “Free Democrats ” party Khachatur Kokobelyan, in an interview with Aravot.am. He shares the official posture of the Defense Ministry.
Note that yesterday, the RA DM Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan announced, “This is a war. I would ask to use the word “war” in the terminology and avoid using the word “ceasefire violation” because we actually do not essentially have a ceasefire.” Khachatur Kokobelyan reminds that he also had repeatedly said that these are hostilities rather than border violations, as during these actions, we, unfortunately, had casualties among the civilian population. “These actions were not infringements by the Azerbaijani side carried out by the hands of the snipers but artillery, also tank bursts,” added our interlocutor by expressing sorrow for getting to a stage and until now, no international structure has given an adequate assessment to the implementer. “They constantly used the terms “incidents on the borders”, “tension on the borders”, whereas, actually, the RA citizen living on the border, the citizen living in Nagorno-Karabakh, literally every day, experiences the hostilities on his skin and suffer from it.
Our citizens living in the border areas are expecting a new explosion every morning. It is already their everyday life.” Yesterday night they were shelling the bordering Baghanis and Voskevan villages. It is noteworthy that all of this preceded by the meeting of Serzh Sargsyan-Ilham Aliyev in Switzerland, after which the US Ambassador James Warlick announced that the meeting of the presidents ended with offering a toast.
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The meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia was followed by the CSTO session, during which Serzh Sargsyan even made a speech with unprecedented and some estimates. “There is no doubt that each country has its own interests and priorities, but they should not be cited against our shared interests and mutual obligations. Every time when the armed forces of Azerbaijan use guns, rocket mortars, or artillery against the Republic of Armenia, they are firing at Astana, Dushanbe, Bishkek, Moscow, and Minsk. I would like to remind that we have a corresponding article in our Charter, and if we don’t implement that article, if we don’t discuss the situation, if we don’t view it as necessary to pick up the phone and make a call to learn what’s going on in the allied Armenia and along with that vote against each other’s interests in international organizations, adopt with third countries bilateral declarations the essence of which is aimed against the CSTO allies, we simply bring under that fire our entire Organization, its reputation, and significance,” said Serzh Sargsyan in particular:
Khachatur Kokobelyan notes that no estimate was provided at the CSTO “famous session” by the CSTO to the available situation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. “In other words, we are in a security system, which I have always described and estimated as a formal structure in terms of the security of Armenia. I considered and consider the CSTO a military-political structure adapted to RF’s current authorities. Perhaps, the Russians also are convinced of it, when the next and the recent Russian-Turkish unprecedented tension occurred. The Russian side is convinced that with the exception of Armenia, there are references about it in the Russian press, the other partners in the CSTO, even in the framework of the CSTO Charter and commitments, refrained from any estimates,” said Khachatur Kokobelyan, considering Armenia’s being is such a security system sorrowful, irrespective of our officials stating that they do not expect any support and are able to solve our own problems independently.
“Glory to our combative army, which was able and, so far, solves our security problems. But at the international tribune, no estimation was given, yes, to the hostilities by Azerbaijan. One cannot give any other description to these actions. Thus, a new threat emerges. Estimating the situation by Armenia, officially, as hostilities means that both our strategic allies and the international community, who are interested in the establishment of peace in the region avoiding the resumption of large-hostilities, should draw strong conclusions and estimate the situation as appropriate,” concluded our interlocutor.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
