Advancement of Azerbaijani troops in Syunik was pre-planned provocation - Pashinyan
YEREVAN, May 13. /ARKA/. Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described today the reported advancement of Azerbaijani troops into Armenian southeastern region of Syunik on May 12 morning as pre-planned 'provocation.'
On Wednesday, Armenian mass media outlets and social networks reported that Azerbaijani troops crossed the state border of Armenia and advanced 3.5 kilometers towards the village of Verishen trying to surround an area near the Black Lake.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said early in the morning of May 12 that Azerbaijani forces “tried to carry out some work at one of the border sections of Syunik under the pretext of ‘border clarification.’”
“After measures taken by Armenian army units the Azerbaijani forces stopped those works,” it said in a statement issued early in the afternoon.
“Right now negotiations are being held for resolving the situation.” The ministry denied rumors about fighting. According to reports, Russian peacekeepers are also involved in the negotiations
Pashinyan told a government meeting today that the situation in the area has not changed and Azerbaijani troops are still near the Black Lake, as well as Armenian troops in large numbers.
'But the tension has not escalated and there were no skirmishes and clashes. Work is underway to make Azerbaijani military withdraw from this territory,' Pashinyan said.
“I want to reiterate that we have a situation that must be taken very seriously. We must act very prudently, decisively and government agencies must ensure a high level of coordination to resolve the problem,” Pashinyan said.
After the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities in Artsakh on November 9, more than 190 settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent seven districts were placed under the control of Azerbaijan.
As a result, the borders of the Syunik region in the south of Armenia (including the administrative center Kapan) appeared to be in close proximity to the new borders of Azerbaijan, drawn during the Soviet time. -0-
