Azerbaijani forces continued shelling civilian settlements and military positions of Nagorno Karabakh overnight.
The Defense Ministry of Armenia informs that 18 ceasefire violations were recorded in the northeastern part of Armenian-Azerbaijani state border on the night of April 26.
The NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns any attempts of the Azerbaijani authorities to reconsider these agreements, regarding them as an overt intention of Azerbaijan to unleash a new war, and insists on the full restoration of the ceasefire regime established in May 1994.
Given the current situation, the Ministry of Defense of the NKR advises the Azerbaijani army to respect the arrangement on ceasing the fire reached between the parties on the latter’s request and warns against turning the peaceful settlements into firing positions and making them legitimate military targets. Otherwise, the Azerbaijan’s military-political command will bear the whole responsibility for the consequences.
“I think, yes. By this step the authorities show—certain lessons are learned. It’s difficult to say though, which forthcoming signs will be recorded, however, for the time being, these signs show exactly this.”
It’s conditioned not only by assessments of a moment, but Azerbaijani authorities simply intended to choose a new strategy, essence of which is the following: to exert more and more pressure over Armenia, and that pressure is applied militarily. Azerbaijani aggression won’t stop. We may conclude that it’s a pressure by one more degree—military actions every night, and this pursues the goal of upsetting functioning of OSCE MG.” according to him, Azerbaijan and Turkey have decided that Minsk Group mediation isn’t in line with their interests and decided to stop its functioning, “They attempt to create a new negotiation format based on Turkey’s mediation, i.e. Turkey’s forced engagement with mediation process is on.”
“We know that Professor Hawking is a great lover of music and to celebrate this new edition of Starmus, we have made a careful and thoughtful selection of surprise guests and musical performances aimed to be a tribute to the Professor,” said Garik Israelian.
As reported earlier, throughout last night the adversary used almost every artillery and armored equipment of its arsenal. In addition to targeting military positions, Azerbaijan shelled Martakert and Mataghis civilian settlements.
President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree on April 26 dismissing Alik Mirzabekyan, Deputy Minister – Head of Logistics Department of the Ministry of Defense, Arshak Karapetyan, Intelligence Department Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and Komitas Muradyan, Head of the Communications and ACS Department of the Defense Ministry.
“I disagree with opinions circulating in Armenia, that Moscow instigated it. Yes, Moscow sold armaments, demand for which was available. Moscow kept the balance between the sides. It’s also clear, if there is demand for weaponry, without maintenance of that influence, armaments would have been available and used on this conflict zone. “
