We have presented a demand that they leave Armenia’s sovereign territory, but the Azerbaijanis continue to remain and are carrying out provocations. The Secretary of the RA Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, said this during an appearance on Public Television, referring to the border situation.
“The process is moving toward conveying all this information to the CSTO, starting discussions, and understanding what solution we are going to give to the situation. Compared to noon, the tension has decreased, but that does not mean calm prevails; there is tension. Today there is already a casualty on the border, and this completely changes the situation. The CSTO must accelerate starting the process and also sending a mission. The CSTO also has an obligation to send a mission to the conflict zone or, in the created situation, to the territory of the given state, so that the mission can give an assessment. We hope that the CSTO will send a mission; we have also activated the mechanisms with Russia,” he said.
According to Grigoryan, as a result of the contacts between Armenia’s Prime Minister and the President of the Russian Federation, there is also agreement that Azerbaijan must leave RA territory: “The position is such, and everyone, one might say, shares that position.”
The Security Council Secretary added: “If we cannot quickly reach a settlement through peaceful diplomatic means, then the situation will approach the situation described in Article 4, and in that case Armenia, together with its CSTO partners, will be forced to solve the problem differently. We continue to hope that the problem can be solved through political and diplomatic means.”
He noted that the public’s expectations have not become reality very quickly, but he is convinced that the problem will receive a solution.
“Since there are processes within the CSTO framework, the position of our allies is that the issue can be resolved through peaceful, diplomatic means; this incident shows that the possibilities of solving the problem through peaceful and diplomatic means are being exhausted, and let me say more, they are creating a situation to appeal to the CSTO under Article 4, and the CSTO must take this circumstance into account. We continue to hope that the problem will be solved through political-diplomatic means; if suddenly it is not possible through political-diplomatic means, we will be forced to apply other instruments.”
To the observation of whether it is the Government’s view that the delimitation work should be accompanied by discussion of Artsakh’s status, Grigoryan said: “We have said that after the withdrawal of troops, a possible environment will be created so that we can begin discussing those issues. We find that those issues are interconnected; it is not possible to discuss our problems with Azerbaijan separately; everything is interconnected.”
