Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan stated at a press conference today that the outbreak of hostilities today is a direct consequence of recent bellicose statements by Baku and Ankara.

He declared today’s Azerbaijani military offensive as much greater than the April 2016 Four Day War.

"It was clear to us. Yes, we were waiting for war. Of course, the day was not known, but the Defense Army was mainly ready for war at 07:00 in the morning. The attack began all the way from Omar to Araks,” Harutyunayn said, confessing that the country’s military had lost a number of poitions around Talish and the south.

Harutyunyan also accused Turkey of fighting alongside Azerbaijan.

 "I want to state that it is not Azerbaijan that is fighting with us, it is also Turkey that is fighting with us," Harutyunyan said, claiming that Turkey had  supplied Azerbaijan with modern drones and planes.

“We have intelligence on the crash of a Turkish plane, but this news has not been confirmed. They mainly use modern Turkish drones. "This is a life-and-death war, we will fight that life-and-death war with the whole nation," said Arayik Harutyunyan.

According to Harutyunyan, widespread mobilization has already started in Artsakh.  

Asked by Hetq if there was any evidence that members of the Turkish Armed Forces were involved in the hostilities, Harutyunyan said that the equipment, particularly the F-16 Azerbaijan was using, proves this to be the case.

"It has been more than a month that they carry out reconnaissance flights with that type of weapon. They mainly use drones, which are the pride of the Turkish military. We have facts that in recent days dozens of planes have flown military flights to Baku. We must be ready for all scenarios, short-term or long-term war. This is already outside the scope of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani or Artsakh-Azerbaijani conflict," Arayik Harutyunyan said.