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“I don’t think official Baku can pretend to such role by carrying out sabotage operations on Armenian-Azerbaijani border or at the line of contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces or by refusing to withdraw snipers from the frontline,” expert Tigran Abrahamyan told Panorama.am when asked to comment on Azerbaijani President’s statement on the occasion of the Day of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan that the Azerbaijani army plays a stabilizing role in the region.

According to the expert, if Azerbaijan was really interested in peace and stability in the region, it would not so frequently violate ceasefire regime.

When asked to comment on the Azerbaijani President’s statement that Azerbaijan’s military budget has increased more than 20-fold over the past years, and now reaches $3.6bn, Abrahamyan said, “Azerbaijan unequivocally violates the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), but when the first figure in the country publicly confesses this, I think his statement should be followed by a response from international organizations.”

Asked whether Aliyev threatened war when he said that “the strength of our army allows us to liberate our lands,” the expert noted, “Azerbaijani President’s statement comes in response to unaddressed statements which followed open provocations by Azerbaijan. As to threats of war and the thesis of “powerful Azerbaijan,” I think the time is not far off when it will no longer be possible for Azerbaijan to “feed” its society with such loud statements.”