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Armenia must always be ready for any provocation initiated by Azerbaijan, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters following today’s Cabinet meeting, commenting on the large-scale military exercises launched by Azerbaijan.

“We are naturally following them. There can be different comments under these conditions, since it is a pre-election period, but the drills should not be linked only to this,” Kocharyan said: “We need to be always attentive to Azerbaijan’s actions. We must always be ready for any provocation by Azerbaijan.”

Baku started military exercises in blatant violation of the OSCE commitments, Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tigran Balayan wrote on Twitter. Balayan, specifically, pointed to the fact that the military drills started without prior notification of OSCE participating states.

As reported by Azerbaijani media, large-scale exercises with the participation of various military branches, formations and military units of the Azerbaijani Army were launched on March 12, involving up to 25,000 military personnel, 250 tanks and other armored vehicles, 1000 missiles and artillery systems of different caliber.

The Azerbaijani authorities did not clarify the location of drills. The five-day military exercises are conducted with the use of a number of new weapons recently purchased from Russia, Israel and the Czech Republic.