CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 16

ALEXANDER KRYLOV
than one thousandth. Strategically and tactically, those territories are
irrelevant. In a merely psychological context, of course, the Azeri
government can persuade their people they got some result”. The
President of Armenia mentioned huge losses on the part of the
Azerbaijani army and stressed that the Armenian armed forces could
take those 800 hectares back, but the question was whether they were
worth the lives of so many people 16 ? Despite the numerous appeals to
continue the offensive to broaden the “security area” and even “defeat
the aggressor completely”, in order to avoid new losses, Armenia
decided not to continue its military action purported to regain the lost
territory.
The reaction of the international community to the resumed large-
scale hostilities in the area of the Karabakh conflict was unfavorable
for Baku. On 2 April 2016, the Co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group (France, Russia and USA) issued a joint statement condemning
the use of force in the area of conflict and called the parties to cease
fire and do everything needed to stabilize the situation at the local
level 17 . The official representative of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) made a stronger and more straight-forward
statement placing the entire responsibility for conflict escalation on
Baku and supporting the Armenian army: “the activities of the
Azerbaijani side in this case will lead to aggravation of the situation
and conflict. The CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha and
Head of the CSTO Administrative Office have an on-going contact
with the Armenian government and receive exhaustive information
about the armed conflict from the republican Ministry of Defense” 18 .
Conclusion
The military action that occurred on 2-5 April 2016 showed that
Azerbaijan was unable to resolve the Karabakh problem by a short
and triumphant military blitzkrieg. The offensive involved new types
16
Ibid.
Press Release by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. 02.04.2016,
http://www.osce.org/mg/231216
18
A CSTO source reported an aggravation of the situation in the NKR because of
Azerbaijani activity. 02.04.2016, http://www.gazeta.ru/ politics/news/
2016/04/02/n_8450927.shtml
17
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