Yerevan condemns Ankara`s attempts to provoke instability in the  region

ArmInfo. The Armenian foreign policy leadership condemned Turkey's attempts to provoke instability in the region.

So, in the Foreign Ministry of Armenia, reacting to the statement of  the Turkish Foreign Ministry in connection with the aggravation of  the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border, in  particular, they stated: "On July 12, the Foreign Ministry of Turkey  issued a statement, in which the Turkish side not only expressed its  unconditional support to Azerbaijan, in fact justifying the use of  force by Azerbaijan on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, but also  disseminated utterly false and misleading information.  This  provocative attitude by Turkey and its groundless accusations against  Armenia attest to the fact that this country has not been acting as a  member of the OSCE Minsk Group, but as a party, involved in the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This fact makes even more impossible for  Turkey to play any role in the issues related to the Nagorno-  Karabakh conflict, within international, and particularly the OSCE  framework.  Turkey's attempts to intervene in the conflicts in its  neighboring regions has already undermined the security and stability  thereon.  We strongly condemn Turkey's attempts to instigate  instability in our region, and affirm that Armenia will continue to  consistently work towards maintaining and strengthening the  international and regional security, while closely cooperating with  international partners to this end."

To note, yesterday at about around 12:30 pm, the Azerbaijani Armed  Forces, for reasons unknown to the Armenian side, attempted to  violate the state border of the Republic of Armenia in the Tavush  direction by <UAZ> car. After the Armenian side warned them, the  enemy troops left the "UAZ" car, returned to their positions.  At  1:45 pm, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, using artillery fire, tried to  capture the Armenian stronghold, but were thrown back by the fire,  incurring loss of manpower. There are no losses from the Armenian  side.  At the evening, the enemy resumed shelling of Armenian  positions, in the direction of a strong point that had not previously  been captured. All night the Azerbaijani Armed Forces fired  intensively using 82 mm mortars and tanks at the aforementioned  strong point.  As it became known, in the morning, after two or three  hours of calm, the enemy resumed provocative actions at the Armenian-  Azerbaijani state border in the Tavush direction, and continued  shelling of Armenian positions.

The Armenian side warned the enemy that all responsibility for  further aggravation of the situation would fall on the  military-political leadership of Azerbaijan.  According to an  official statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of  Azerbaijan, during the incident yesterday, three servicemen of the  Azerbaijani army were killed and four were injured. But, the media is  already circulating information about 17 killed Azerbaijani soldiers. 

Due to the aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani  border, caused by the events of July 12 this year by clashes in the  Tavush direction, the CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas initiated  holding of the emergency meeting of the CSTO Permanent Council on  July 13. This is stated in the message of the CSTO press service.  

It is also worth noting that in this situation, the Turkish side  took an active position, expressing unconditional support for Baku,  which were reflected in two statements by the Turkish Foreign  Ministry.  Moreover, the second statement was made by the Turkish  Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the air of TRT Haber.  He noted  that Turkey, using all the opportunities, will support Azerbaijan.  "Let Armenia come to its sense," Cavusoglu said.