“Azerbaijani shots were not directed towards the village. Those were mostly targeted at the posts”, touching upon the Azerbaijani side firing at the Chinari direction during the OSCE monitoring, clarified the RA Defence Ministry Spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan, during an interview with Aravot.am.
Mr. Hovhannisyan noted that the Armenian side did not suffer any losses in peaceful settlements and among the civilian population. Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that the OSCE monitoring group eventually carried out its mission.
We asked Karen Vrtanesyan, coordinator of “Razminfo” website, whether this was a precedent case, or there were other cases too when during the monitoring Azerbaijani side has fired, Mr. Vrtanesyan said, “This is not an ordinary case, but there were such cases several years ago. All in all, there have been no serious, immediate consequences for Azerbaijan. The OSCE Minsk Group is a mediator institution, and according to its mandate, it cannot take any punitive actions, not even make criticizing or indicting statements, because from that moment it will stop being a mediator. And that’s what the Azerbaijanis want so that the conflict can be moved to other platforms, where, for example, Turkey’s positions will be stronger”.
In response to our question, whether how this incident can be used in favor of the Armenian side, Karen Vrtanesyan said, “In any case, some criticism may sound behind the scenes, but I do not think it will happen officially. They might make some statements by opening brackets to some extent. It’s a diplomatic game that has its own rules. Even the fact that such incidents are recorded and remembered, at some point it is used to the detriment of the winner. It’s not that it will be completely gone, forgotten, another question is to what extent and how the impact will be, and whether there will be an opportunity for it to be used”.
In response to our remark, that if the Azerbaijani side already opens fire during monitoring, therefore one can conclude that the mechanisms to restrain it are almost exhausted, Mr. Vrtanesyan said, “I would not say so because if we look at the last violation, precise dynamics, development is difficult to fix. There was a war in April, but afterwards there was a long period of restraint. There were clashes in August 2014, after which monitoring was carried out for two or three months in some extent, and the ceasefire was almost not violated”.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
