Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan.
During a meeting with journalists today, Armenia’s Defense Ministry Spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that it is no longer accurate to use the word “peaceful” in reference to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict regulation process. He pointed out, “we no longer have peace, all we have is relative calm.” According to Hovhannisyan, the recent developments on the Contact Line can no longer be branded a “breach of the ceasefire agreement” but have escalated into a state of war.
For the first time since the establishment of the ceasefire regime in 1994, on Azerbaijani armed forces shelled the Contact Line with tanks on December 8, 2015. According to Hovhannisyan, resorting to heavy artillery is a desperate step by the Azerbaijani side.
Other than the change in weaponry, the Azerbaijani side has also changed its whole military strategy. According to Artsrun Hovhannisyan, this is because Azerbaijan is intimidated by the impenetrable resistance of the Armenian armed forces.
On December 12, President Serzh Sargsyan met with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Bern, Switzerland. The presidential summit was mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs. In the days leading up to the meeting, tensions along the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact escalated with both sides suffering casualties.