YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. The maintenance of constant tension in the conflict zone, in fact, is Azerbaijan’s response to the unsuccessful diplomatic activity of its foreign ministry and leadership, Russian political scientist Stanislav Tarasov told Armenpress, commenting on the Azerbaijani June 16 and 17 aggression launched in Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact as a result of which four Armenian soldiers were killed.

“Azerbaijan reached a deadlock in all directions. They are unable to come to an agreement, and these events are taking place ahead of the Co-Chairs’ upcoming visit to Baku and after the visit to Stepanakert and Yerevan. This case of situation escalation aims at overthrowing the negotiation process. The conditions, the agenda proposed by the Co-Chairs which are now being discussed and have been discussed also in Yerevan and Stepanakert, are not beneficial to Azerbaijan. It acts through escalating the situation by this provoking Artsakh to armed conflict”, Stanislav Tarasov said.

Asked what does Azerbaijan want to say through the large-scale military exercises which are being held over the past months, the Russian political scientist said:

“These military exercises are internal indicators that Azerbaijan considers the armed conflict as a key, in other words, it publicly displays it, but in reality, one of these measures is to put pressure on Stepanakert and Yerevan aimed at reaching concessions in the negotiation process. Frankly I don’t predict a serious armed conflict yet as long as fight goes on clarifying the stances. Armenia should not yield to provocations and in any case it should have to ‘bid’ on political-diplomatic settlement. It has long been obvious that Azerbaijan acts as an aggressive side, and especially in case when the Minsk Group accepts the St. Petersburg agreements which suppose installation of monitoring mechanism. If this mechanism works, the international observers will be able to have a more objective picture of the situation, which is not beneficial to Baku”, the Russian political scientist said.

The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire regime on June 16 at 18:05 using antitank grenade launchers, as a result of which 3 Artsakh Defense Army soldiers, Arayik Matinyan, 1997, Vigen Petrosyan, 1997, and Vardan Sargsyan, 1997, received fatal wounds. Following the Azerbaijani June 16 aggression, in the morning of June 17, at 09:40, the Azerbaijani forces launched another provocation at the northern direction of the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact as a result of which Defense Army soldier Narek T. Gasparyan (born in 1997) was fatally wounded.