“The CSTO Secretariat was worried to learn about the armed incident near the village of Chinari in the Republic of Armenia,” CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha said in a statement.

“We consider these actions on the territory of a CSTO member state as a provocation, especially against the background of a rather serious incident in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic with application of heavy weapons and armored vehicles in April this year,” Bordyuzha said.

“It seemed that considering the efforts taken by both parties, as well as the leaders of a number of countries, the process of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh issue could finally proceed more actively,” the Secretary General said.

However, he said, the recent reports from the region on the ceasefire violations, especially the recurrent incident on December 29 that resulted in the death of servicemen, cause serious concerns,” he said.