Azerbaijan is planning a full-scale war against Armenia, – PM Pashinyan

On Thursday, February 15, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said before the start of the government meeting that recent events and statements by the Azerbaijani side may indicate that it is preparing for military escalation. The transcript of Pashinyan’s speech was published by the government’s press service.

By the latest events, the Armenian prime minister was referring to the shooting at one of the sections of the border with Azerbaijan on the night of February 13. Then official Baku and Yerevan exchanged accusations. Azerbaijani media claimed that Armenia was the first to open fire and that a soldier of the Azerbaijani armed forces was wounded.

According to Pashinyan, four Armenian soldiers were killed “while on combat duty.”

“The description of the events shows that Azerbaijan’s intentions remain unchanged: to pursue a policy of military coercion against the Republic of Armenia. … A number of circumstances suggest that Azerbaijan continues to pursue a policy of “give me what I want through negotiations, otherwise I will take it militarily,” he said.

The Armenian prime minister is talking about how far from the border the troops of both countries should be. According to Yerevan, Baku avoids decisions “based on a formula.”

“There are two options: first, to delimit the entire border and start implementing it. The second option is to divide the border into parts and delimit it in parts. And, in fact, both options are acceptable to us within the framework of the above principles. However, Azerbaijan seems to avoid this option as well, and our analysis shows that there may be one reason for this, and this reason may be, for example, the outbreak of hostilities in some parts of the border with the prospect of turning the military escalation of the conflict into a full-scale war against the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.