On July 30, in Vienna, at the initiative of the delegation of Armenia,  the issue of "Turkey's aggressive policy and military posturing as a destabilizing factor in the South Caucasus" was included in the agenda of the OSCE Permanent Council session.

At the beginning of his statement, the Permanent Representative of Armenia, Ambassador Armen Papikyan, informed the OSCE participating States about the recent ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan, as a result of which an Armenian serviceman was fatally wounded by the sniper fire, and another serviceman was wounded again by the sniper fire.

Afterwards, Ambassador Papikyan informed about the announcement of Azerbaijan on the joint Azerbaijan-Turkey military exercises, underlining that all these actions are taking place a few days after the statement issued by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, where they particularly emphasize the importance of strictly adhering to the ceasefire and call to refrain from any provocative action. Therefore, the Armenian side views these joint drills as a deliberate joint provocation aimed to further increase tensions in the region. In this regard, the Permanent Representative of Armenia also emphasized that the leadership of Azerbaijan is undermining the efforts of the international mediators aimed at de-escalating the situation and resuming the peace process, thus bearing the responsibility for the consequences of further destabilization.

Referring to the role of Turkey, Armen Papikyan mentioned that apparently without unconditional support from Turkey Azerbaijan would not be able to sustain instability on the borders with Armenia for long. In this vein, Armenia specifically draws the attention of the OSCE participating States to aggressive policy and military posturing of Turkey towards Armenia, in particular, and in the South Caucasus region in general. 

Turkish military posturing against Armenia is also manifested in its extensive military involvement in Nakhijevan. The role that Turkey played in the recent flare up along Armenia-Azerbaijan border should not be overlooked either. Turkey was the only OSCE participating State, which expressed its unconditional support to the Azerbaijani military adventurism against Armenia.

Subsequently Ambassador Papikyan presented several statements issued by the high level officials of Turkey, including President Erdogan, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, which were in a stark dissonance with the positions and approaches expressed by responsible members of the international community. The Permanent Representative of Armenia mentioned that Turkey’s statements, aside from fuelling the tensions on the ground, exhibited clear regional ambitions towards the South Caucasus, which the Turkish leadership attempts to substantiate by referring to Turkey’s so-called “historic mission” in the region. For Armenia and Armenian people these statements are reminiscent of the Armenian Genocide and raise the concern of the Armenian people and authorities. 

Ambassador Papikyan touched upon the posture of Turkey with regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He particularly mentioned that Turkey, despite being a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, has always been playing a destructive role. Open encouragement by Turkey of Azerbaijan’s maximalist approaches in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process and Turkey’s provocative and biased stance seriously undermines the peace process and proves that Turkey cannot be involved in any international processes related to the conflict.

Armen Papikyan also referred to the Note Verbal distributed by the Permanent Mission of Armenia on July 29 on the military inspections by the Republic of Turkey and guest inspectors from Turkey under the CFE treaty and the Vienna Document on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. In that respect Ambassador Papikyan mentioned that such inspections were carried out for years mainly along the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border. Given the openly anti-Armenian posture of Turkey as well as the sensitivity of such kind of information under current circumstances and the security of Armenian people, Armenia decided to suspend military inspections and guest inspectors from Turkey under the CFE Treaty and the Vienna Document.

At the same time Armenia reiterates the importance of arms control mechanisms as a crucial tool for increasing transparency, predictability and accountability provided that they are implemented in good faith and in line with those mechanisms.