YEREVAN. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service's Border Guard Service have no mandate to be in the vicinity of Nerkin Hand, in the Syunik region on the Azerbaijani border, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"There is no mandate and agreement for the presence of Russian border guards. If that means that Russian border guards cannot exercise any functions associated with security there, it is assumed that certain conclusions need to be drawn from it," Pashinyan said at a "government hour" meeting in parliament on Wednesday.
"No one" in Armenia "has said that the Nerkin Hand area is a zone of Russia's responsibility," he said.
Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan earlier told reporters that "the territory where the incident in Nerkin Hand recently occurred is accessible to Russia." "Russia is present there. And Russia could not prevent the incident," he said.
On February 13 the Armenian Defense Ministry reported the deaths of four soldiers in Azerbaijani attacks. The Azerbaijani State Border Service said Operation Vengeance were conducted in retaliation to a provocation carried out by Armenian troops on the border on February 12.
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