Armenia will retaliate heavily if Azerbaijan dares another adventure in Nagorno-Karabakh - president Sargsyan says

YEREVAN, April 7. / ARKA /. Armenia will retaliate heavily if Azerbaijan dares another adventure in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview with Russian Rossiya -24 TV channel. 

"We believe that the principles and elements contained in the six statements made by the heads of US, France and Russia, the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, and the document, which is used as a basis for us and Azerbaijan to continue the talks are  acceptable  for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict", said Sargsyan.

According to him, the consensus opinion of the co-charring countries is that these principles and elements make one whole and no principle must prevail over the others.

"Of course, we share the view of the co-chairs that peoples need to be prepared for peace not war, but, unfortunately, the Azerbaijani leadership does the contrary,"  Sargsyan said.

He said neither international peace brokers not officials dealing with the conflict doubt that the tension is to be blamed on Azerbaijan. Sargsyan stressed that the Azerbaijani leadership does not even hide it having said at the Munich Security Conference that the tension will continue as long as Armenians do  not surrender the regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh.

Sargsyan reminded that the Karabakh army was forced to create a security zone for the population to escape daily shelling by Azerbaijani troops.

"The government of Azerbaijan does not care about the principles and elements offered by the co-chairs for seeking a solution to the conflict,' the president said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by succeeding referendum. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. 

Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year. –0--