Statement On the Armed Provocation by Azerbaijan at the Armenian-Azerbaijani State Border delivered by Ambassador Arman Kirakossian at the 1128th Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council

19 January, 2017

Mr. Chairman,

We would like to draw the attention of the Permanent Council to the recent armed provocation by the Azerbaijani armed forces at the north-east section of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border in the vicinity of the Chinari settlement.

On December 29, an Azerbaijani armed unit crossed the state border, penetrated into the territory of the Republic of Armenia and targeted the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Armenia. The Armenian armed units repulsed the attack and caused several casualties to the subversive group. Regrettably, the armed provocation led to death of three servicemen, lieutenant Shavarsh Melikyan and privates Edgar Narayan and Erik Abovyan.

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia has opened criminal case on the basis of articles 1, 7 and 13 of the paragraph 104, killing of two and more persons by an organized group with motives of national, racial and religious hatred or religious fanatism and article 2 of the paragraph 384, unleashing or conduct of a war of aggression, of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. Currently, investigation is ongoing.

Mr. Chairperson,

Immediately following the provocation the Ministry of Defense of Armenia issued press-releases with details of the armed provocation, including information on one of the Azerbaijani casualties, whose body was found in the trenches of the Armenian armed forces on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. Only after hours of silence and realizing that the Armenian side holds irrefutable proofs of the responsibility of the Azerbaijan for this diversionary infiltration, the Azerbaijani propaganda tried to mirror ill-prepared counter accusations. Apparently the very fact that the body of Azerbaijani serviceman was found in the Armenian positions deprives these claims of any hint of credibility.

We would like to stress that the Azerbaijani side holds full responsibility for this serious incident, which claimed the lives of servicemen and brought grief to several families just on the eve of New Year and Christmas.

The situation along the Line of Contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan also remains tense. Yesterday ceasefire violation by Azerbaijani armed units resulted in death of a serviceman of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army Andranik Musikyan.

Mr. Chairperson,

I would like to remind that following the large-scale military offensive of Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh the agreements on increasing the capacities of the PRCiO and creating investigative mechanism into ceasefire violations were reached in the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits. The importance of these CSBMs in order to prevent armed provocations and casualties among military servicemen and civilian population is self-evident for anyone in the OSCE, but not Azerbaijan. Mutual accusations cannot be clarified by story-telling, an outburst of which we have seen in the recent letters of Azerbaijani Permanent Representative, but clear verification of facts which can be produced by an OSCE investigative mechanism.

Armenia does not need to be convinced for an urgent need of investigative mechanism into cease-fire violations and any calls in this regard should be specified.

Against this background we took note of the statement of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and we hope that the Co-Chairs will be persistent in promptly and strongly reacting to any use of force or threat of force in the conflict zone, especially, those which lead to human losses.

We call on the OSCE Chairmanship and the participating States to send an unequivocal signal to Azerbaijan that any attempt of use of force will be condemned by the international community, as well as to exert pressure on it to implement agreements reached in the Vienna and St. Petersburg Summits.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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