On March 6, the President of the Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, convened an extended session of the Security Council with the participation of the heads of political forces and regional administrations of the National Assembly.

Before starting the ses,sion, the attendees observed a minute's silence to honor the memory of the police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh who died as a result of the Azerbaijani sabotage on March 5, then President Harutyunyan made a statement.

According to the head of the country, the Artsakh side met with the Azerbaijani side on February 24 with the mediation and presence of the command of the Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in Artsakh in order to discuss the humanitarian and infrastructural issues of the situation. Then an agreement was reached regarding the second meeting, which took place on March 1, under the leadership of Security Council Secretary Samvel Shahramanyan. Four issues were on the agenda of the meetings: unblocking the Lachin Corridor, restoration of electricity supply from RA to Artsakh, uninterrupted supply of natural gas, and re-exploitation of the Kashin mine.

"During the second meeting, the representative of Azerbaijan tried to discuss political topics using the word integration, but Mr. Shahramanyan prevented it, saying that if they should discuss political issues, it should be the topic of recognition of the independence of Artsakh by Azerbaijan. He added that they are not authorized to discuss political issues and cannot discuss such matters at this meeting,"  said A.Harutyunyan.

According to the head of the country, after that, the Azerbaijani side conveyed to us through its channels that either you accept the integration policy, or there will be no solution to the existing problems; on the contrary, there will be more challenges and sharper steps.

"We did not accept, we do not accept and today I want to state again that it is not only a decision of the Security Council, but the overwhelming majority of our people accept that we will not deviate from our right to independence and self-determination. And that means that in the near future we will have different developments, situations that we have to face. We choose to either continue the struggle that we have chosen, or if there are such moods in the public that we should accept the proposal presented by Azerbaijan, then they have the opportunity to speak up within the scope of their civil rights and say that the path we have chosen is wrong, try to shape that moods, form a new government in the country. But since we have chosen the path of struggle, please first of all respect our decision and do not react to any such phenomenon and do not give any internal political implications," said the President.

Referring to the tragic case of the killing of the police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh as a result of the Azerbaijani sabotage operation on March 5, the President of the Republic noted that, unfortunately, such provocations are not excluded shortly.

"The fact that we have to fight for a long time and within the framework of that fight there will be such situations, we must realize it and take preventive measures. I have discussed our problems with the Minister of State and today I want to instruct the Government by the decision of the Security Council to develop a program in the directions of food security and energy security, because we have to calculate all scenarios," Araik Harutyunyan said.

Defense Minister Kamo Vardanyan made a report on the operational situation at the session of the Security Council. Then there was an exchange of ideas, and a number of decisions were made as per the agenda.