CSTO concerned by escalation on Azeri-Armenian border
MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - The escalation of tensions on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia should stop, the secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has warned.
"We express our serious concern about the recent rise in deadly shell attacks on the Armenian-Azeri state border and nearby villages and civilian installations in the Republic of Armenia," Yury Khachaturov said in a statement on the CSTO website.
"The belligerent rhetoric leads to a new stage of tension, jeopardizing the efforts of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Treaty Organization] Minsk Group.
"Considering the information from the Republic of Armenia's Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative to the CSTO, presented at the Permanent Council meeting on September 21 this year, we are calling for an end to the shelling and escalation of tension in the CSTO responsibility zone in order to prevent a rise of the security threat to the Republic of Armenia, a CSTO member state," Khachaturov said.
Earlier the defense ministries in Armenia and Azerbaijan reported increased gunfire on the joint border.