Military actions in Karabakh conflict zone not unexpected – Sargsyan
Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian president, said in an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle that military actions in Karabakh conflict zone were not unexpected.
He said there was nothing unexpected in Azerbaijani's assaults.
«The ceasefire was not accidential as well. Azerbaijnis suffered heavy losses,» he said. «And besides, Russia's defense chief called his Armenian counterpart and said that Azerbaijanis agreed to meet in Moscow with representatives of the Armenian side. It was also support from the international community – many countries and international organizations released appropriate statements.»
In his words, the Armenian side has done whatever is possible to prevent clashes, but about the three years ago Azerbaijan rejected two or three key principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and now it keeps insisting on solution based solely on territorial; integrity principle.
Sargsyan also pointed out that Azerbaijan had increased its military budget many times and is building up its bellicose rhetoric.
He added that Armenia had repeatedly alarmed appropriate organizations what might happen.
«We have proposed to create a mechanism for identifying causes of incidents along the full length of the contact line to find out who is the initiator of the conflict actions,» he said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 February when the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region announced its secession from Azerbaijan. In September 1991, the region declared itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and, over the course of the enduring conflict, Azerbaijan subsequently lost control of the region.
In 1994, a Russia-brokered cease-fire was signed and peace talks have been held since, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
On April 2, 2016 Azerbaijan resorted to an "unprecedented provocation along the entire perimeter of the contact line" with Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the NKR Defense Army, during the three-day fighting they have destroyed 2 helicopters, 29 tanks, one missile system Grad, heavy flame-throwing systems TOS-1, 6 armored vehicles, including 1 infantry fighting vehicle, 1 unit of engineering machinery and 6 Azerbaijani drones killing also over 300 Azeri soldiers.
The Armenian side lost 14 tanks, 36 servicemen were killed, and 122 wounded. Four civilians, including one child, were killed as well. Armenians also have 21 missing people. A ceasefire agreement was reached Tuesday at 12:00. ---0---