Question: How would you comment on the escalation by Baku of the situation on the Line of Contact prior to the Moscow meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, which resulted in the death of an Artsakh Defense Army soldier?

Tigran Balayan: In the absence of any coherent arguments in the negotiation process Azerbaijan tries to compensate it with provocations along the Line of Contact. Baku once again demonstrates that it does not care about the negotiation process, otherwise it would have not undermined it by grossly violating the ceasefire regime on the day of the meeting between the Foreign Ministers.

By resorting to such a provocation at a time when everybody is waiting for the outcome of the Moscow meeting, Baku demonstrates that it is not interested in the result. Irrespective of the level of meetings held, the Azerbaijani side continues to persist in its traditional policy of provocations.