YEREVAN—Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said Thursday that the situation at the border is “tense,” but under control.

 

“The situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan is tense, the number of ceasefire violations and shots increases every day,” Ohanian said.

“But the Armenian forces have control of the situation both in Artsakh and the frontline villages of Armenia,” he added.

The Minister said, “The Armenian side gives worthy responses to provocations from the adversary.”

Seyran Ohanian made the remarks at Yerablur. A number of high-ranking officials visited the Military Pantheon today to pay tribute to the memory of former Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsyan on his 56th birthday.

Meanwhile, Russia called on the parties to “demonstrate restraint” and avoid actions that would lead to escalation of violence.

“The situation in the Karabakh conflict zone remains unstable. The escalation at the beginning of the year was followed by relative standstill in the second half of February. The representatives of the parties accepted it during the monitoring of the line of contact conducted by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk on February 20,” official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs Alexander Lukashevich told journalists.

“However, the data received on the early days of March testify to a recurrent escalation of ceasefire violations, which, unfortunately, have resulted in casualties,” Lukashevich said.

“Yesterday Andrzej Kasprzyk held a monitoring at the line of contact. A corresponding report will be prepared. I think more detailed information about the state of affairs can be received from the participants of the monitoring,” he added.

“We called on the parties to show restraint and avoid actions that could lead to the growth of tensions, to remain committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict as declared at the Sochi Summit on August 10, 2014,” Lukashevich said.