The upcoming meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Turkish leadership's instigations and provocative statements has resulted in a new wave of escalation in the Karabakh conflict zone. Eduard Sharmazanov, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, made such statement to ArmInfo recalling that Azerbaijan resorts to provocations every time before a high level meeting to come out as a strong party at the talks.
In his words, Azerbaijan with such destructive actions challenges not only Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh but also the OSCE Minsk Group countries. "When OSCE MG co-chairs say the conflict must be settled peacefully and the Azerbaijani side make provocations on the next day it is a direct challenge to the mediating countries. The world community should strongly condemn the inadmissible behavior of Azerbaijan that ignores all the calls for peace and escalates the situation on the border," Sharmazanov said adding that the world community must not maintain false parity and must make addressed statements.
As for the possible ways to resolve the conflict, he said the mediator countries may impose sanction against Baku unless Azerbaijan abandons its aggressive policy. "In the current geopolitical situation, the mediator countries will do their best to prevent a new hotbed of tensions in the region in addition to Syria, Middle East and Ukraine," he said. Sharmazanov believes that further processes in the conflict zone will depend on the upcoming Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting, the stands of the mediators and the proposals to be made.