March 4, 2011 - 21:38 AMT
OPINION
Azerbaijan keeps staging provocations before and after presidential meetings

Yet another time, Azerbaijan stayed true to itself, violating the ceasefire several hours before the Armenia-Azerbaijan- Russia presidential meeting in Sochi. The provocation resulted in a death of a serviceman Grigor Shakhkyan (born in 1991).

This has been the second frontier incident in 2 days, provoked by the Azerbaijani side. On March 3, serviceman Hovhannes Avdalyan was wounded in Azeri firing of Karabakh’s positions.

Baku seems to be unwilling to violate the traditions it established, staging provocations on the line of contact before or after every presidential meeting.

A major incident at the conflicting parties' contact line was recorded immediately after a trilateral meeting of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian Presidents. On June 18, an Azerbaijani armed reconnaissance team penetrated into Artsakh territory. To disarm the group consisting of twenty soldiers, a unit of the NKR army undertook measures, as a result of which the Azerbaijani group suffered losses and retreated. 5 Armenian servicemen died as a result.

Azerbaijani side must be “given credit” for persistence in violating ceasefire on “usual” days, using large-caliber weapon along with different types of small arms.

Apparently, mediators, superpowers and even the whole international community are no authority for Azerbaijan. What is it Baku tries to achieve through provocations? Medvedev might need to ask Aliyev about it on March 5 in Sochi.