They have approached us saying they want to do such a thing, but whether they have an agreement with the Azerbaijani side or not, that question is outside Armenia’s jurisdiction; this was stated by the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Tiran Khachatryan, during a conversation with journalists, responding to the question of whether it is not strange that a private company unilaterally decided and prepared a checkpoint in Azerbaijan’s territory, and that the Armenian authorities did not know in advance that it was Azerbaijani territory:
The First Deputy Chief of the General Staff noted that Azerbaijani forces came to that region the day before yesterday and wanted to enter, and clarified that the border runs along the Sotk pass road: “One part of the Sotk mine belongs half to us, half falls within their territory. It has come to my knowledge that one part of the territory will be in our territory, and the other in theirs. It is also known that the Russian side organises the protection of the entire territory, and peacekeepers have not been included in that territory, and whether they will be later or not, I cannot say”:
To the question of how a company can take upon itself the protection of a territory, does not Armenia belong not to a private company, Armenia belongs to the citizen of the Republic of Armenia, Tiran Khachatryan answered that every company deals with the protection of its own territory: “How many such international cases do you know, this was a unique case, now this is how it has happened”:
To the question of whether representatives from the Azerbaijani side have entered the territory of the Sotk mine, he answered: “Yes, they have placed three positions in that territory, and one of them directly along the edge of the mine”:
