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Political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan has reacted to Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan’s statement on the “withdrawal of Armenian troops from Artsakh”.

“Due to the [2020] war, a number of Armenian army units entered Nagorno-Karabakh to help its Defense Army,” he told Armenpress on Tuesday.

“They are returning to Armenia after the establishment of the ceasefire [in November 2020]. This process is nearing completion and will end in September. As for the Defense Army, it has been in Nagorno-Karabakh and will remain there,” the security chief said.

His comments came after the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Georgia on July 16.

“As far as I know, there are no Armenian army units in Artsakh, while demobilization of conscripts is not a reason to make a political statement. Thus, we can assume that the discussed issue is much more substantial than it may seem at the first glance. In this case it must be about the removal of military equipment from Artsakh,” Melik-Shahnazaryan wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

“I am sure that by saying "units of the Armenian armed forces", the current authorities mean the military equipment in Artsakh, the withdrawal of which has long been demanded by Azerbaijan,” he added.