Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan claims that the Azerbaijani troops carry out provocations in Artsakh’s Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages deliberately in order to devaluate the presence of the Russian peacekeepers, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan said in an interview with ‘’Azatutyun’’ radio.
‘’The problem is that the actions take place in the zone of responsibilities of the peacekeepers and as I have already said, following the start of those developments the peacekeepers entered that region, but unfortunately, it did not lead to stabilization of the situation. And our assessment is that the Azerbaijani troops purposefully take such provocative actions also for devaluating the factor of the peacekeepers in the conflict zone. And those local actions have a much broader and global perspective – setting an agenda for the withdrawal of the peacekeepers’’, Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan added that at least by yesterday Azerbaijan had not signed the document confirming the mandate of the peacekeepers, and Armenia observes all those actions from this context. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that such actions should be solved in a close collaboration between Armenia and the peacekeepers and Russia.
“The Defense Army servicemen and the Russian peacekeepers thwarted various provocations by Azerbaijani troops, and yesterday evening they were repelled from the outskirts of the Hin Shen village of Shushi. These days no one was hurt in the direction of Berdadzor, and the adversary wasn’t allowed to enter any settlement. Unfortunately, several dozens of our troops were taken captive by the Azerbaijani side in the direction of Khtsaberd, and now the defense ministry is determining all circumstances. I will personally be coherent in bringing those guilty for this incident to legal accountability. Their quick and safe repatriation must be the focus of our efforts, and we are already taking steps in this direction,” Artsakh’s President Arayik Harutyunyan said earlier today.
