Yerevan pre-planned diversion against Azerbaijan

On Dec. 29, a reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces tried to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border. The Armenian group found itself in the ambush of the Azerbaijani army while violating the borders. The enemy suffered losses in the ensuing clash and had to retreat.

Mammadov added that Yerevan committed a provocation today to draw attention of the CSTO member-states to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after the Armenian delegation failed to point to the conflict and elect an Armenian representative as the CSTO secretary general at the organization’s recent session in St. Petersburg.

Mammadov said that while gradually spreading misinformation about diversions in the region, not related to the Nagorno-Karabakh area, Armenia aims to artificially expand the scale of the conflict and involve other CSTO members in it.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.