“The situation was relatively calm at the border last night,” Spokesman for the Minister of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a press conference today. He said the final data on the losses of the Azerbaijan side would be published by the end of the year. According to different estimates, the number of losses exceeds 210.

The Spokesman said since the beginning of the year Azerbaijan has used weapons that had not been used after the conclusion of the ceasefire, including tanks, howitzers, anti-aircraft units.

Artsrun Hovhannisyan urges not to use the term “ceasefire violation,” when speaking about the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, since we have long not had ceasefire and peace, we have a “relatively calm ceasefire.”

He said “the rival has tried to conquer military strongholds on several occasions over the past years, but has always faced a worthy response.”

“The adversary has used different means, but has never succeeded. Therefore, we can say Azerbaijan is moving along the path of exhausting its important forces, i.e. exhausting its ‘golden fund’,” Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

The Spokesman avoided speaking about CSTO response to the border tensions and referred to President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the CSTO Collective Security Council yesterday.

President Sargsyan said that “every time Azerbaijani Armed Forces use automatic guns, mortars and artillery equipment against the Republic of Armenia, they shoot in the direction of Astana, Dushanbe and Bishkek, Moscow and Minsk.”

“Taking into consideration the recent tense atmosphere in the region, we should not rule out that Azerbaijan has been guided or supported by outer forces,” the Armenian President stated.