MFA: Azerbaijan`s recent actions defy constructive efforts of Armenia  and Nagorno-Karabakh towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict

ArmInfo. Armenian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement related to the incident that happened tomorrow on the frontline.

To recall, on June 1, at 07:30am, as a result of a shot fired by the  enemy, a soldier of military service of one of the military units  located in the south-east direction (Martuni) Sipan Serzhikovich  Melkonyan (born in 2000) received a fatal gunshot wound. As the press  service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry informs, the statement reads  as follows:

"Armenia resolutely deplores deliberate steps by Azerbaijan in the  past three days to increase tension, which manifest in dissemination  of false information about its own casualties, direct calls for  physical threats to the leadership of Armenia, publicly voiced by  representatives of the ruling party in Azerbaijan's parliament, and  significant increase in ceasefire violations, which resulted today in  a killing of private Sipan Melkonyan of the Defence Army of  Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan's recent actions take place against the  background of the appeal of 30 May from the OSCE Minsk Group  Co-Chairs to exercise maximum restraint to avoid escalation.

These latest developments defy the efforts of Armenia and  Nagorno-Karabakh, under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group  Co-Chairs to take constructive efforts towards the peaceful  resolution of the conflict, to establish a conducive environment to  this end, and represent a serious setback for all the efforts taken  over the past months. Azerbaijan violates its own commitments  undertaken in the latest Joint Statements in Milano (December, 2018),  in Vienna (March, 2019) and in Moscow (April, 2019).

The deplorable actions of Azerbaijan, if not urgently addressed, may  represent a serious obstacle to next steps in the settlement process.  They also question the credibility of Azerbaijan and their capacity  to remain faithful to commitments, as agreed in Dushanbe in September  2018 and reaffirmed in Vienna in March 2019, to observe and  strengthen the ceasefire. Armenia strongly urges Azerbaijan to  demonstrate genuine political will expressed in concrete and  effective measures to observe the ceasefire. Azerbaijan will bear  full responsibility for the risks of further escalation.

Azerbaijan's latest confrontational and dangerous actions prompt  their past violence, atrocities and attempts to aggression and stand  proof of the existential physical security risks to the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh.  Armenia reiterates that there is no alternative to  the peaceful resolution of the conflict, for which strict observance  of the ceasefire is an essential condition. Under no circumstances  the security of Nagorno-Karabakh and its people will be compromised.

The latest incident underlines the urgency to finalize in the  shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism of ceasefire  violations and to expand the Office of the Personal Representative of  the OSCE Chairperson in Office, in accordance with the commitment  taken by Azerbaijan in Vienna and St. Petersburg in 2016.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia expresses its profound and  most sincere condolences to the family and friends of private Sipan  Melkonyan of the Defence Army of Nagorno-Karabakh".