Our soldiers were kidnapped, not captivated from Armenia's territory - Pashinyan
Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan started the Thursday cabinet meeting with clarifications on the recent border incident that saw six Armenian soldiers captured by Azerbaijani troops.
Pashinyan said that the servicemen were "kidnapped rather than captivated" in the course of the reported engineering activities at the border section close to the military unit in Gegharkunik.
"Mine clearance activities were being carried out; what's even more - and I would like to put a special emphasis on that - the process was accompanied by the simultaneous installation of warning signboards. That practically rules out any subversive intent. Those activities were being carried out with the purpose of raising the defense of our borders. Subsequent reports revealed that our soldiers had been captivated in circumstances yet to be clarified, but it is not captivation in essence. What happed was the kidnapping of our servicemen from the territory of the Republic of Armenia," he explained.
Condemning such processes as "highly unacceptable", Pashinyan called attention to the adversary's intent to occasionally provoke incidents of the kind in an effort to "reconcile" Armenia with the presence of Azerbaijani troops on the country's territory. Meantime, he reaffirmed the impossibility of the scenario.
Pashinyan also warned against speculations for domestic political purposes.
He highlighted two major objectives underlying the Azerbaijani authorities' actions. "They have an option to develop the situation in a way that would it make it usual for us to see the presence of Azerbaijani troops on our territory. The second scenario prompts [mechanisms] to provoke a military confrontation to make the situation spiral out of control. We must not yield to any of those objectives. Our demand is clear: the Azerbaijani troops must withdraw from our territory," he said, promising sober-minded and circumspect approaches.
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