YEREVAN, JULY 6, ARMENPRESS. Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan says using the death of Azerbaijani child for propaganda purposes is immorality, reports Armenpress.

He is convinced that Azerbaijan will definitely use this fact to gain political dividends.

“Unfortunately, there had been developments as a result of the escalation of the recent days which were irreversible. We know that a child was killed, a really painful incident, and I think this will significantly impact the situation. Over the past 3 years Azerbaijan carries out a policy the logic of which is to solve some political problems by escalating the situation in the border or to hide certain negative phenomena which we witnessed recently”, the political scientist said.

According to him, the recent border tension is nothing more than an attempt to distract the international community’s attention from the scandalous report in the Bulgarian media about Azerbaijan.

“I think this can significantly impact Azerbaijan in terms of international reputation. They didn’t find a way to defend themselves more seriously than to escalate the situation in the border. Well aware that they will be silenced in case of opening fire, they did so that there was a great panic, they opened fire towards our posts from residential areas and, of course, it was impossible to avoid certain victims among civilians”, the political scientist said.

He said by releasing the photos of the killed child Azerbaijan wants to show the brutal nature of the “enemy”, however, according to Melik-Shahnazaryan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and defense minister Zakir Hasanov killed the child.

The Azerbaijani armed forces continued violating the ceasefire regime in different sections of Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line on July 4. Particularly, in the period of 11:30-11:35 the Azerbaijani troops fired 82 mm mortars (4 projectiles) in the eastern direction of the contact line and anti-tank missiles (3 projectiles) in the same section at about 12:45-12:55. In the southern direction the Azerbaijanis fired 60 mm mortars (3 projectiles) at 13:35, while at the period of 20:20-20:30 the Azerbaijani armed forces fired 5 projectiles from TR-107 multiple rocket launcher from a military position located in Alkhanlu village in the direction of a command post of a regiment located in the southern direction, and at 20:48 3 projectiles were fired in the same direction from 82 mm mortars. The front line units of the Defense Army had no alternative but take retaliatory measures to suppress the enemy's aggressive activity at 20:31-20:40, as a result of which the military position of Azerbaijan in Alkhanlu village was damaged. According to credible information from the relevant services of the Defense Army, the enemy has suffered losses. The Defense Army suffered no casualties as a result of the provocative actions initiated by Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani side announced two civilians were killed and one was wounded.