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“The local Armenian forces [in Nagorno Karabakh] inflicted considerable losses on the adversary and threw the offensive back, now in full control of the situation. The state bodies of the Republic of Armenia are ready to undertake all necessary steps in order to stabilize the situation using all their capacities”, - Hovik Abrahamyan, the Prime-Minister of Armenia said in a meeting with Cabinet members in the morning of April 2 following the reports of intensified violence and large-scale offensive by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

According to the official press release from the meeting, Prime Minister Abrahamyan said this was another example of the policies of Azerbaijan aimed at undermining the Nagorno Karabakh peace process.

The Chief of Staff of the Government Davit Harutyunyan, Deputy Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, Deputy Prime-Minister Vache Gabrielyan, Minister of Health Armen Muradyan, Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Yeritsyan and Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan participated in the meetings.

Prime-Minister Abrahamyan stated that recent reports indicate that the Defense Army of Nagorno Karabakh Republic retained “full control” of the situation and threw back the offensive of the adversary.

Deputy Defense Minister David Tonoyan reported on the ongoing situation on the Line of Contact and acknowledged the present offensive has been “unprecedented” ever since the establishment of ceasefire regime since May 1994.

PM Abrahamyan emphasized the importance of informing the population on the developments in the frontline and ordered the relevant bodies of the government to undertake necessary efforts.

Earlier in the morning, Vladimir Hakobyan, the Press Secretary of the President of Armenia, spoke to Tert.am news portal and confirmed that the “President Serzh Sargsyan had been briefed incontinently about the escalation of the situation on the Line of Contact en route from the United States” and the Air Force One was expected to land in Yerevan “in the next hours”.

Earlier on Saturday, April 2, the Armenian Ministry of Defense in an official statement already acknowledged the recent reports on the escalation on the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops and called upon the co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to make “addressed intervention without delay in order to keep the situation under control and escape larger scale military actions”.

The Ministry vowed “unexpected consequences” in the absence of such measures.

According to RIA Novosti, Moscow is carefully considering the incoming information about the unfolding situation in Nagorno Karabakh, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova in a statement.

According to reports by the Ministry of Defense of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the “Defense Army downed one military helicopter of the adversary attacking the Armenian positions in the Northern direction of the Line of Contact”, as well as numerous losses of other military equipment and manpower.

Speaking to Panorama.am on the developments, the spokesperson of the President of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, David Babayan said such provocations make Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “a terrorist” who is attending the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington these days.