A regular session of the RA government was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Before discussing the issues on the agenda, the head of the government referred to the situation created as a result of the intensive firing of artillery weapons by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces units at dawn in the direction of the Sotk settlement of the Gegharkunik region of Armenia and presented the main goals of Azerbaijan for aggravating the situation.

In his speech, Nikol Pashinyan, in particular, noted:

"Dear participants of the government session,

Dear people,

Today, at around 06:00, units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened intense fire from artillery weapons in the direction of the combat positions located in the Sotk settlement of the Gegharkunik region of the Republic of Armenia, striking the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

The intensity of active shelling has somewhat decreased after the adequate and effective retaliatory actions of the Armenian army. There are 4 wounded from our side, I wish them a speedy recovery.

These actions of the Azerbaijani side are provocative and aim, among others, to nullify the progress that was registered during the negotiations held on May 1-4 in Washington. Today's provocation is also aimed at disrupting the negotiations scheduled for Sunday in Brussels in a trilateral format, and in Chisinau on June 1 in a five-party format.

Experience shows that Azerbaijan needs the negotiation process only to get an escalation and a reason for war, and escalations are used exclusively to nullify any progress made in the negotiations.

This is happening now. This is happening now.

Yesterday's reports of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan about the violation of the ceasefire regime by our army are fictitious. Such information is fabricated to aggravate the situation. If escalating the situation is not Azerbaijan's predilection, any local incident can be quickly resolved through information verification, exchange and preventive arrangements with existing contacts.

The previous day, nothing like this happened for a simple reason: no incident was registered, and the Azeri disinformation machine made up the news in hindsight to aggravate the situation. And the main goal of aggravating the situation, I repeat, is to nullify the negotiation process and disrupt the course of further negotiations.

But this is not the only goal, and the next one is to divert the attention of the international and Armenian public from the fact of setting up an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor, forgetting the old one by creating a new crisis in a new place.

This is the proven tactic of Azerbaijan. An attempt was made to forget the September aggression by blocking the Lachin Corridor with fake environmental activists. An attempt was made to forget the humanitarian crisis established in Nagorno-Karabakh by crossing the state border of Armenia in the area of Tegh village. An attempt was made to forget the violation of the border in the local area by setting up a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor. By escalating the situation in Sotk, they are trying to forget about the installation of an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor.

Despite Azerbaijan's attempts, all these issues naturally remain on our priority agenda. Active communication with the international community on these topics should continue.

Dear participants of the government session,

Dear people,

I should also say that as of now I have not changed my decision to go to Brussels for Sunday's negotiations.

Also, I want to answer the following question, which I guess that in the near future, some forces may be involved in the already known scenario if I go to Brussels. How likely is it that a peace treaty will be signed with Azerbaijan on Sunday? Unfortunately, I repeat, unfortunately, such a chance is very small, because the draft of the bilateral agreement on the establishment of peace and interstate relations is still very preliminary and it is too early to talk about signing it. On the other hand, we have a task to mature that document as quickly as possible and prepare it for signing.

I must emphasize that with today's actions, Azerbaijan is questioning the fundamental agreements reached during this period, which were recorded on October 6, 2022 in Prague and on October 31 of the same year in Sochi. Those documents emphasize that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity in 1991. Based on the Declaration of Alma Ata. The question that arises in this context is the following: if Azerbaijan recognizes the territorial integrity of Armenia, why is it shooting at the sovereign territory of our country? Especially since according to the 2022 Sochi tripartite declaration, the parties must refrain from the use of force and the threat of force.

Azerbaijan has also grossly violated these written public agreements today, and in general, it is difficult to remember a jointly accepted document that Azerbaijan has not violated during this time.

Government meeting dear participants,

Dear people,

Since early morning, the Ministry of Defense publishes information about the situation practically every 15-20 minutes, sometimes more often.

I urge you to follow the official news feed and not to become a spreader of Azerbaijani and non-Azerbaijani false information. The Ministry of Defense will continue to publish periodic information.

I should also say that as of now, the situation has recorded a significant decrease in tension, but it is still too early to consider the situation fully stable. Thank you."