David Babayan: Azerbaijan's sabotage attempt was a response to the statement by the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries

Azerbaijan's sabotage attempt was a response to the latest statement by the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries. David Babayan, Spokesperson of the Artsakh President, told ArmInfo, on December 4.

He said the statement of the mediators was balanced and contained an important message saying that there is no alternative to the peace process. Babayan believes that it is the stand of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem in response to the calls for peace and de-escalation. 

"Azerbaijan demonstrated a behavior characteristic to the compulsive countries having close relationships with terrorists and earn on cooperation with the 'Islamic State,'" he said.  Babayan recalled that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu and other officials are in Baku these days.  Davutoglu openly stated the need to "liberate the Azerbaijani lands." He said Ankara might be behind that sabotage attempt, "which is not a result of the strain that emerged in the Russian-Turkish relations."  "It is an attack on the Armenian people. Let's not forget that it was Turkey that committed the Genocide," he said.

On December 4, at 4:30 am Azerbaijan mounted a sabotage attack on the northeastern section of the contact line of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops.   The frontline detachments of the Defense Army stopped the raiders and threw them back. Unfortunately, serviceman Erik Grigoryan (born in 1995) received a fatal gunshot wound. The incident is being investigated. 

Earlier, on December 3, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries - Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry, State Secretary for European Affairs of France Harlem Desir issued a joint statement on the Karabakh problem. The statement is as follows:  "With the significant escalation in violence along the Line of Contact and Armenia-Azerbaijan border this year, the status quo has become unsustainable. We especially condemn the use of mortars and other heavy weaponry, and regret deeply the civilian casualties these weapons have caused. There is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and there is no justification for the death and injury of innocent civilians. We appeal to the sides in the strongest possible terms to reduce tensions and protect lives.  The Co-Chairs have proposed risk-reduction measures that we encourage the sides to adopt, including an OSCE investigation mechanism". The statement also says that over the past year, "we have witnessed increasingly vocal attacks on the Co-Chairs and the Minsk Group format. We emphasize that the Minsk Group remains the only accepted format by the sides and has the full confidence of all OSCE participating States. Any attempts to blame the Co-Chairs for setbacks in the negotiation process only mask the primary obstacle to peace - the lack of political will in Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a negotiated settlement. The Co-Chairs will continue to brief international and regional organizations interested in supporting the Minsk Group process. We reaffirm our readiness to work closely with the sides on achieving our common objective of an enduring peace".