By escalating the tension on the Line of Contact of the Artsakh and Azerbaijani armed forces, Baku is trying to bring the Karabakh peace process to a deadlock, Eduard Sharmazanov, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, has told ArmInfo when commenting on the new wave of escalation in the Karabakh conflict zone by Azerbaijan.
He says that the Nazi vocabulary of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the demonstration of Azerbaijan's military force aim to disrupt the peace talks. "Actually, Baku is challenging the OSCE Minsk Group and the international community by rejecting two of the three fundamental principles of the conflict settlement (peoples' right to self-determination, territorial integrity, non-use of force - editor's note)," the politician says, noting that all that is being done rather impudently amid the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and other high-ranking European officials about the need to continue the peace talks.
In this light, Sharmazanov stresses that the international community simply must give a proper assessment to the Azerbaijani side's actions and to bring the impudent Azeri leader down to earth. He also says that the addressless calls of the international community encourage Baku to undertake new aggressions.
Sharmazanov points out that theoretically there is a possibility of resumption of military actions in the NKR. In practice, however, that possibility is too small because the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the entire civilized international community are interested in peaceful resolution of the conflict.
To note, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs finished their visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan on July 21. Since 2 pm, July 21, the Azerbaijani armed forces have intensively been firing at the Artsakh positions. On July 21, the Azerbaijani armed forces fired more than 1,600 shots at the Armenian positions with various weapons, including mine throwers and RPG-7 grenade launchers, as well as over 140 shots with large- caliber weapons.