David Babayan, the Head of the Central Information Department of the Office of the Artsakh Republic President regards the visit of OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs to Baku as peculiar and thinks that the Chairs should make a targeted announcement taking into consideration that Azerbaijan launches military exercises and in recent days the situation on the border has been intense: whether this refers to the Armenian side having had 4 victims or the regular announcement towards both sides, Mr. Babayan answered: “It is the first time the chairs visit Baku after their last and the sole targeted announcement, immediately after these escalations. If this targeted address, the style of a rather tough announcement is not applied again, then the moves of Azerbaijan towards representing the character of that latest and sole announcement as absurd and bizarre will make a success.”
Asked what value that announcement can have, especially if after the last one Azerbaijan proceeded to be active on the border, Mr. Babayan replied – if similar announcements are more frequent, assuredly, they will have an influence.
Asked whether the announcement of the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh implying that “the response will be targeted and not equal” constitutes that the response will be given by the army and not on diplomatic and political platforms, Mr. Babayan replied: “Who else do we imply to give a response when saying “targeted” if not the army. We have a regular army. Of course, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its part should respond in politico-military, social and informational-diplomatic fields. We all are to respond through our unity.”
Whether a war is possible to evolve or not, the positions of the political figures differ. For example, David Shahnazaryan is convinced that the possibility of a new large-scale war has decreased during the recent months, meanwhile Nikol Pashinyan thinks that large-scale war is unavoidable. According to David Babayan, an active phase of the possibility of war always exists, and we are ready, but from the other angle, circumstances are in place grounding the prediction that the possibility of large-scale and long-term war is low.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
